A judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas declined to allow the state of Texas to voluntarily drop a civil forfeiture lawsuit over goods seized by a local law enforcement group that aims to stop illegal exports. The state will continue litigation in a similar case in front of the same court. The federal government isn't a party in either case.
The Bureau of Industry and Security revoked export privileges for a Chicago resident for an illegal export to the United Arab Emirates, BIS said in a Feb. 17 order. BIS said Siddharth Bhatt was convicted Sept. 16, 2020, of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after he tried to export a controlled U.S.-origin thermal imaging camera to the UAE without a required license. Bhatt was sentenced to 48 months of probation and was fined about $2,500. BIS revoked Bhatt’s export privileges for 10 years from the date of his conviction, and revoked any BIS-issued licenses in which he had an interest at the time of his conviction.
Sen. Tom Cotton, one of the most prominent China hawks in Congress, thinks that the Bureau of Industry and Security is buried within an organization “hostile to the aggressive use of export controls,” and so it should be moved from the Commerce Department to the State Department, because, he says, that department puts national security first. Cotton, who has published a lengthy report on what he calls the economic long war with China, discussed his views during an online program at the Reagan Presidential Foundation on Feb. 18.
The European Commission opened an antidumping investigation of certain graphite electrode systems originating in China. The investigation is based on a complaint from Graphite Cova, Showa Denko Carbon Holding and Tokai ErftCarbon on graphite electrodes of a kind used for electric furnaces, with an apparent density of 1.5 g/cm3 or more and an electrical resistance of 7 micro ohm meters or less, and nipples used for such electrodes. Complainants “provided sufficient evidence that there are raw material distortions in the country concerned regarding the product under investigation,” and that compared with prices in other international markets, are significantly lower, the EC notice said. “[T]he investigation will examine the alleged distortions to assess whether, if relevant, a duty lower than the margin of dumping would be sufficient to remove injury.”
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Feb. 8 (some may also be given separate headlines):
Nigeria recently issued guidance for exporters shipping to countries within the African Continental Free Trade Area, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Jan. 28. It details various export requirements, including those regarding permits, licenses, certificates and other documents necessary within the AfCFTA, whose members began trading Jan. 1. Exporters and agents need to apply to the Nigeria Customs Service for an AfCFTA certificate of origin once the required fees are paid. Along with a bill of entry and a certificate of origin for shipments, exporters also are required to include a bill of lading, a certificate of analysis, a packing list and a commercial invoice, the HKTDC said.
The importance and size of the Mexico-U.S. trading relationship does not receive enough recognition in the U.S., Mexico's outgoing ambassador to the U.S., Martha Barcena, said Feb. 5 during an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mexico is the U.S.'s no. 1 trading partner, she said, and the economies are inexorably linked, with the automobile supply chain as just one example of it. One piece of a car will cross the border an average of seven times before final assembly, she said.
The government of Canada issued the following trade-related notices as of Feb. 5 (some may also be given separate headlines):
Argentina and Canada recently made antidumping and countervailing duty determinations on products from China, according to a Jan. 27 report from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Argentina ended its antidumping investigation on lawn mowers and weeders from China after finding a “lack of sufficient domestic industry support,” the HKTDC said. Canada determined that it will impose antidumping and countervailing duties on certain mainland Chinese decorative and other non‑structural plywood. Canada also began “re-investigations of the normal values and export prices” of certain carbon steel fasteners originating in or exported from China by Qifeng Precision Industry SCI‑TECH Corp. and Jiaxing-based Robertson Inc., the HKTDC said.
The U.S. moved to seize all oil aboard a Liberia-flagged vessel, the M/T Achilleas, via a forfeiture complaint filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the oil is affiliated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the IRGC-Qods Force, both U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations. The complaint alleges the IRGC and IRGC-Qods Force schemed to deliver the oil to a customer abroad and that the origins of the oil were disguised using ship-to-ship transfers, falsified documents, and other means to trick the owners of the Achilleas into transporting the oil, the Department of Justice announced in a Feb. 3 news release.