The Court of International Trade on Feb. 26 again sent back the Commerce Department's decision that Indonesian data is not economically comparable to Vietnam as part of its surrogate country selection process, along with the agency's consideration of evidence pertaining to exporter NTSF Seafoods Joint Stock Company's production information.
The majority of World Trade Organization members issued a joint declaration Feb. 25 to mark the "finalization of the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD) Agreement," the WTO announced at the start of the 13th Ministerial Conference. The 123 ministers who issued the declaration represent three-quarters of the WTO membership.
Eight more World Trade Organization members accepted the fisheries subsidies agreement at the start of the 13th Ministerial Conference this week, the WTO said. Sixty-nine members have so far accepted the deal and 40 more are needed for ratification; the WTO said one more member is expected to accept the deal during MC13. The newest countries to adopt the agreement are Brunei, Chad, Malaysia, Norway, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo and Turkey. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said negotiations also are ongoing on a second fisheries deal, adding that passing both agreements would "really put WTO members at the forefront of action on sustainability of our oceans and would safeguard the livelihoods of the 260 million people who depend on these oceans."
Mohamed Daoud Ghacham, executive at California-based clothing wholesale company Ghacham Inc., was sentenced to 48 months in prison for undervaluing garment imports to avoid paying customs duties, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced Feb. 23. In addition, the Bell, California, resident will pay close to $6.4 million in restitution after pleading guilty in December 2022 to conspiracy to "pass false and fraudulent papers through a customhouse."
Indian exporter Kumar Industries withdrew its appeal of an antidumping duty case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 23. The company said that it "has elected not to further pursue its appeal," noting that the U.S. consented to the withdrawal (Kumar Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1293).
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26 said it won't review whether whistleblower Brutus Trading should've been granted a hearing by a lower court in its case accusing U.K.-based Standard Chartered Bank of violating sanctions against Iran.
Importer Seneca Foods Corp. opposed the U.S. attempt to extend the deadline to file its remand results in a suit on the Commerce Department's decision to reject the company's requests for exclusions from Section 232 steel and aluminum duties. The government asked for another 31 days to file its remand decision after initially being given 90 days to conduct the remand and a 45-day extension (Seneca Foods Corp. v. United States, CIT # 22-00243).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a Feb. 26 confidential order in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on raw honey from Argentina. In a letter to the parties, Judge Claire Kelly said it's her intention to issue a public version of the opinion on or shortly after March 5, giving the parties until March 4 to review the confidential information. In the remand results, Commerce continued to use respondent Nexco's acquisition costs as a proxy for the cost of production of beekeeper supplies (see 2310130049). The agency also struck by its decision to compare Nexco's U.S. sale prices with normal values based on Nexco's third-country sale prices to Germany on a monthly basis instead of a quarterly basis (Nexco v. U.S., CIT # 22-00203).
Three U.S. steel companies, Cleveland-Cliffs, Steel Dynamics and SSAB Enterprises, told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that Turkish exporter Habas failed to show that the Commerce Department's finding that Habas' Turkish lira price, and not the U.S. dollar price, controlled the amount owed by the exporter's customers at the time of payment was unsupported. Filing a reply brief on Feb. 26, the steel companies said Habas' arguments, which were "long on verbiage and obfuscation but short on specificity and clarity," only presumed the agency's finding to be wrong and did not actually show that it was (Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1158).
Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, chair of the fisheries subsidies talks at the World Trade Organization, circulated a draft text on the second fisheries negotiations on Feb. 16, the WTO announced. The text covered subsidies contributing to overcapacity and overfishing and was released in the run-up to the 13th Ministerial Conference, which is set to be held Feb. 26-29.