The World Trade Organization General Council on March 22 reached consensus on chairpersons for 2024. The new chairs include Norway's Petter Olberg for the General Council, Saudi Arabia's Saqer Abdullah Almoqbel for the dispute settlement body and Chile's Sofia Boza Martinez for the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, among others. The WTO noted that talks on a candidate for the chair of the Committee on Trade in Services will continue under Olberg's care, "with the aim of filling the vacancy as rapidly as possible."
The U.K. Court of Appeal last week ruled that sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska wasn't in contempt of court for allegedly breaching a commitment to the court that he wouldn't move to procure British Virgin Island-based B-Finance to dispose of his shares of Jersey company EN+ in an arbitration suit.
A group of U.S. mattress makers, led by Brooklyn Bedding, opposed exporter CVB's request for a 60-day extension in which to file its opening brief in an injury suit at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Only consenting to a 14-day extension, the mattress makers said CVB "has failed to show good cause exists" for a longer extension since the trade court's decision in the suit was issued over 90 days ago (CVB v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1504).
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Evan Wallach on March 25 deferred exporter Oman Fasteners' motion to dismiss an interlocutory appeal in an antidumping duty case to the three-judge merits panel assigned to the case. The appeal came from petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire from the Court of International Trade's decision to impose an injunction on the Commerce Department's AD cash deposits on Oman Fasteners' steel nail imports. Oman Fasteners moved to dismiss the appeal, claiming that since the injunction is no longer active since Commerce completed the next review of the AD order, there's no live controversy (see 2401300069). The trade court granted the injunction after finding the agency abused its discretion in setting a 154.33% AD rate on the exporter for narrowly missing a filing deadline (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1661).
Three companies challenging the International Trade Commission's injury finding on Mexican and Chinese rail couplers responded to the ITC's and the petitioner's opposition to their motion to consolidate their cases, arguing that the "result is to sandbag Plaintiffs." Dubbing the ITC's opposition to the consolidation a "highly unusual move," the three companies -- Amsted Rail Co., Wabtec Corp. and Strato -- said that the opposition is "procedurally dubious" and "entirely meritless" (Amsted Rail Ind. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00268; Wabtec Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00157; Strato v. United States, CIT # 23-00158).
India and the U.S. told the World Trade Organization that they reached a solution in the U.S. dispute on India's tariff measures on certain agricultural products, the WTO announced. India and the U.S. resolved six other disputes last year (see 2306230038), the WTO noted.
The EU General Court on March 20 annulled the sanctions listing of tire maker Belshyna AAT, finding that the company wasn't a significant source of revenue for the Belarusian government.
The Court of International Trade on March 21 reassigned three cases to Judge Jane Restani.
Chinese exporter Ninestar Corp. on March 22 moved to treat its submission at the Court of International Trade in support of its motion to unseal and unredact the record as a "highly sensitive document" in its case contesting its listing on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. The exporter said it doesn't waive any claim that certain parts of the record "should eventually be unsealed," nor does it waive any argument that its requested documents shouldn't be treated as confidential information under the court's protective order (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
The Court of International Trade on March 21 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a countervailing duty case in which it "changed the way it calculated ocean freight." Since no party objected to the new calculation, Judge Jane Restani sustained the remand.