Jacob Kopnick

World Trade Organization members on Sept. 17 discussed various proposals on the e-commerce work program at the program's first meeting since the 13th Ministerial Conference, the WTO said. Proposals from the least-developed countries (LDC) group, the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries group and Cambodia were discussed.

International trade lawyer Mary Mikhaeel will leave Miller & Chevalier, where she has worked as a senior associate since January 2023, according to a notice at the Court of International Trade. The firm said Mikaheel will leave the firm effective Sept. 23. Mikhaeel told Trade Law Daily she will be joining Covington's business and human rights practice group. She has been at Miller & Chevalier since 2020, when she joined as an associate, moving from Fox Rothschild.

The Court of International Trade on Sept. 18 sustained the Commerce Department's decision on remand to weight average zero percent and adverse facts available antidumping rates to set the rate for the non-individually examined respondents in the 2016-17 review of the AD order on multilayered wood flooring from China.

Importer Cozy Comfort Co. moved on Sept. 17 to exclude the testimony of sales and marketing lecturer Patricia Concannon regarding the tariff classification of The Comfy, a wearable blanket. The motion was issued ahead of a bench trial on the classification of the item (Cozy Comfort Company v. U.S., CIT # 22-00173).

The Commerce Department erred in treating fees exporter Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens paid to a U.S. company as a direct expense in the antidumping duty investigation on paper shopping bags from Portugal, Finieco said in a Sept. 17 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens v. U.S., CIT # 24-00160).

Three grape grower trade groups filed a complaint on Sept. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenging the Agriculture Department's notice allowing table grapes from Chile to be imported under a "systems approach" as opposed to using the standard fumigation requirements (California Table Grape Commission v. United States Department of Agriculture, D.D.C. # 24-02645).

The Commerce Department said on remand at the Court of International Trade that Germany's Konzessionsabgabenverordnung (KAV) program, which exempts from a fee gas and power pipeline companies that sell electricity below a certain price, isn't de facto specific. The fees would otherwise be passed on to consumers. Commerce made the finding on Sept. 17 after being instructed by the trade court to conduct a de facto specificity analysis (BGH Edelstahl Siegen v. U.S., CIT # 21-00080).

The EU General Court last week upheld the sanctions listing of Marina Mordashova, who was sanctioned in 2022 for her association with her husband, Alexey Mordashov, chairman of investment firm Severgroup. The court rejected Mordashova's argument that she shouldn't be subject to sanctions because she was no longer married to Mordashov, according to an unofficial translation of the court's decision.

Business consulting firm FTI Consulting launched a national security practice that will offer advice on various national security issues, including export controls, reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., sanctions, and "transshipment and diversion of critical technology." Michael Driscoll, former assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York office, will lead the practice.

The U.S. and Kevin Ho, owner and director of importer Atria, have agreed to try and resolve a customs penalty action via stipulated judgment and are now working to negotiate a number Ho will pay, the parties said in a Sept. 16 status report. The development comes after Ho pleaded guilty in a parallel criminal proceeding in which he was sentenced to 18 months in prison (United States v. Chu-Chiang "Kevin" Ho, CIT # 19-00038).