Jacob Kopnick

Importer Cozy Comfort Co. and the U.S. submitted additional briefing ahead of their trial next week at the Court of International Trade on the tariff classification of The Comfy -- a wearable blanket imported by Cozy Comfort (Cozy Comfort Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00173).

Burkina Faso formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Oct. 16, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 85. The WTO needs 26 more to reach the two-thirds membership threshold for the agreement to take effect.

The U.S. Court.of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's electronic filing system, CM/ECF, will undergo maintenance from Oct. 19 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. EDT Oct. 20, the court announced. The system will be unavailable during this time, though it "may be available for intermittent accessing of documents," the court said. Filers shouldn't try to file any new documents during this time.

The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The Commerce Department improperly found that its off-grid solar charging modules didn't qualify for two exclusions to the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on solar cells from China, U.S. importer GameChange Solar Corp. argued Oct. 15. Filing a complaint at the Court of International Trade, GameChange said the agency illegally "disregarded, discounted, and mischaracterized contradictory information on the record including photographs submitted" by the importer (GameChange Solar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 24-00174).

The U.S. on Oct. 15 urged the Court of International Trade to dismiss a suit from importer Retractable Technologies challenging the recent 100% increase of Section 301 tariffs on needles and syringes from China. The government said the trade court lacks jurisdiction to "second-guess the President's findings" and discretion in telling the U.S. trade representative to modify the Section 301 action and that the company failed to state a claim on which relief could be provided (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 15 limited the scope of the testimony that will be offered by two of the government's witnesses in a customs spat on the classification of The Comfy, a wearable blanket imported by Cozy Comfort Co. Judge Stephen Vaden said fashion industry professional Patricia Concannon can testify only on topics related to the "sale, marketing, and merchandising of apparel," and that CBP national import specialist Renee Orsat "may not testify about opinions she formed during the Customs’ classification process."

Meen Geu Oh, former DOJ senior trial counsel, has joined Dutch conglomerate Philips as senior counsel, Oh announced on LinkedIn. Oh worked at DOJ for over 11 years, including on international trade cases, among other matters. At Philips, Oh said, he will be working on a "broad range of contract and compliance issues."

World Trade Organization members need to ramp up discussions in the coming weeks to have a "fully and well-functioning dispute settlement system" by the end of the year, said Mauritius' Usha Dwarka-Canabady, facilitator of the WTO's dispute settlement reform talks.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit gave notice to the U.S. on Oct. 15 that it has failed to respond to exporter La Molisana's notice of oral argument in a case on the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on pasta from Italy. Failure to file this document "may result in dismissal or other action as deemed appropriate by the court," CAFC said in the text order (La Molisana v. United States, CIT # 23-2060).