The Court of International Trade denied on Nov. 6 an attempt by LG Electronics to put on hold a case on the International Trade Commission's antidumping and countervailing duty injury determination on large residential washers from South Korea and Mexico. LG Electronics wanted the case delayed while CIT considered a separate lawsuit on the Commerce Department's determinations from the same investigation. It argued that if the court remanded and Commerce came back with low AD/CV duty rates, it could affect the ITC's consideration. But the court found the potential upside of LG's Commerce Department challenge to be uncertain -- even if Commerce reduced its rates to zero, there is no guarantee the ITC would change its injury determination -- to justify the potentially years-long delay that would result from waiting on the outcome of the Commerce case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed on Nov. 5 a lower court ruling on the tariff classification of hole punches for paper scrapbooks. As the Court of International Trade had done in September 2012 (see 12100102), the appeals court held Wilton Industries’ “Stampin’ Up!” hole punches should be classified as “perforating punches” under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8203, rather than Wilton’s preferred classification as paper cutting machines under heading 8441. The former heading exactly describes Wilton’s hole punches, while the latter is reserved for paper manufacturing machinery, CAFC said.
The Court of International Trade sustained on Nov. 4 the final determination from the Commerce Department’s antidumping investigation on drill pipe from China (A-570-965). Downhole Pipe and its Chinese affiliate DP-Master challenged the way the agency valued a key input, and CIT had remanded in November on the issue 12112301. On remand, Commerce changed the way it valued the input, but ended up raising Downhole Pipe’s AD rate from 69.19% to 149.36%. Downhole Pipe unsurprisingly continued to contest the determination, but CIT found Commerce’s redetermination to be reasonable.
The U.S. government filed federal charges against a Belgian businessman in Chicago for trying to export aluminum tubes without the required U.S. Commerce Department license, ICE said in a press release. The charges allege that Nicholas Kaiga was trying to export the aluminum tubes, which are controlled for nuclear nonproliferation purposes, from an Illinois company, through Belgium, to a Malaysian company, said ICE.
The Court of International Trade finally sustained the Commerce Department’s 2008 final countervailing duty determination on new pneumatic off-the-road tires from China (C-570-913), bringing to an end after five years of litigation a case that at one point called into question Commerce’s ability to impose CV duties on China at all 11122210. CIT had in January accepted the constitutionality of the 2012 law authorizing CV duties on non-market economy, but remanded on more mundane issues (see 13010830). On remand, Commerce lowered TUTRIC’s CV duty rate from 6.85% to 3.93%. The court found Commerce adequately explained its reasoning, and accepted the results despite challenges from both domestic industry and Chinese exporters.
A Missouri man pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to playing part in a conspiracy to import and sell counterfeit DVDs over the internet. Matthew Cerullo, of Springfield, imported more than 22,000 counterfeit DVDs from Hong Kong between February and Sept. 2013, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri. He sold the DVDs over the internet on eBay and Amazon through several businesses he owned, it said. Cerullo faces up to 40 years in prison without parole, the attorney’s office said.
The Court of International Trade granted a reprieve to an importer facing penalties for tariff misclassification, but didn’t let the importer off the hook entirely. On Oct. 30, the court rejected a government request for penalties based on technicalities related to the calculation of the penalty amount. The government sought $324,687 against importer Lafidale for misclassification of handbags and wallets. CIT found that the importer was liable for penalties for gross negligence, but said the government’s muddled calculations prevented it from allowing the penalty to proceed. Although it denied the government’s motion, CIT said it would allow the government to correct its mistakes and refile.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is proposing to change its rules related to the filing of entries of appearance when a case is already in progress. The proposed amendments to Rule 47.3 would treat an entry of appearance filed after a case is assigned to a merits panel as a motion to appear that may be rejected by the panel (here). Motions are currently only required if an attorney’s entry of appearance is filed within 30 days of the scheduled argument.
A New Jersey woman could be facing up to 20 years in prison for export control violations related to allegedly sending military blueprints to India without a license, said the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office. Hannah Robert, who owned two New Jersey defense contracting businesses, was arraigned Oct. 28 on one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the act, the attorney’s office said.
The Court of International Trade again ruled against the Commerce Department’s 15-day period to issue liquidation instructions to CBP after publication of the final results of an administrative review, in a challenge to the 2008-09 antidumping duty review on ball bearings from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The judgment was only declaratory, however, because the plaintiffs were able to file their lawsuit and get an injunction within that period, suffering no harm from the Commerce policy.