The Court of International Trade remanded the final determination in the antidumping duty investigation of certain steel grating from China (A-570-947), and ordered the International Trade Administration to (1) redetermine the AD margin for non-individually investigated separate rate recipients Yantai Xinke Steel Structure and Ningbo Haitian International; and (2) determine a separate rate for mandatory respondent Ningbo Jiulong Machinery, which the ITA had determined to be part of the China-wide entity when it applied adverse facts available (AFA). CIT also sustained the ITA’s decision to apply AFA to Jiulong.
The California Attorney General's Office filed a complaint against 16 businesses that have allegedly been supplying retailers or directly selling Californians jewelry containing high levels of lead, some of it imported from Asia, according to the California Environmental Protection Agency. The jewelry items contained metals which are potentially toxic to people, especially young children, the complaint said.
ObjectVideo said it would file an unopposed motion to remove Samsung from an ongoing U.S. International Trade Commission investigation pertaining to video analytic technology products from Robert Bosch GmbH and Bosch Security Systems. "Both parties agreed this was the appropriate next step as part of our continued efforts to resolve the dispute between the companies," said Raul Fernandez, CEO of ObjectVideo. The trial involving other parties in the case was to begin on schedule July 18 at the USITC. The patents in the suit include U.S. patent numbers 6,696,945; 6,970,083; 7,613,324; 7,868,912; and 7,932,923.
The U.S. Court of International Trade granted the U.S. government's motion to dismiss Acme Furniture Industry, Inc. vs. the U.S., in a decision July 18. The government had said Acme failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, but Acme said it was challenging an erroneous reliquidation by the CBP, so its challenge falls within section 1581(a).
Geoffrey B. Roose, of Corvallis, Ore., was sentenced Friday to 10 months in federal prison for attempting to sell export restricted military-grade equipment to overseas buyers in violation of the Arms Export Control Act, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Roose had pleaded guilty in March. According to court documents, investigators sent a message via eBay advising Roose that the scopes he was auctioning were restricted for export to which Roose responded with "Thanks." Despite the warning, he didn't end his auction, ICE said. Undercover ICE special agents then purchased one of the military-grade rifle scopes and had it shipped to a European address. Roose shipped the order, which was seized before it left the country, ICE said. On the customs declaration, Roose identified the $1,700 scope as "telescope w/Mount" valued at $150.
Two men accused of creating a global network of shell companies to deceive U.S. companies into supplying nuclear-related materials to Iran were indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia, reported Immigration and Customs Enforcement. According to a superseding indictment made public Friday, Iranian national Parviz Khaki and Chinese national Zongcheng Yi allegedly attempted to obtain and illegally export U.S.-origin materials to Iran that can be used to construct, operate and maintain gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, ICE said. This includes materials such as maraging steel, aluminum alloys, mass spectrometers, vacuum pumps and other items. Khaki is also accused of conspiring to procure radioactive source materials from the U. S. for customers in Iran, said ICE.
The International Trade Commission’s denial of eligibility for benefits under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, aka the Byrd Amendment) for U.S. crawfish producer PS Chez Sidney was reversed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The ITC had originally ruled Chez Sidney ineligible in 2002, only to reverse its decision pursuant to a 2007 Court of International Trade remand after CIT said the petition support requirement of CDSOA violated the First Amendment. Then, in 2010, ITC once again found Chez Sidney ineligible for benefits after CAFC reversed CIT’s 2007 remand because of CAFC’s SKF v. USA ruling, which had found that the petition support requirement was constitutional. In this ruling, CAFC also remanded CBP’s decision, made during the 2007-2010 period during which Chez Sidney was found eligible, to only distribute benefits to Chez Sidney to the extent that the already distributed benefits were recoverable from other domestic producers.
The Court of International Trade dismissed Nan Ya Plastics Corporation’s bid for monetary benefits under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act (CDSOA, aka the Byrd Amendment). Nan Ya had originally been a petitioner in the 1999 antidumping investigations of polyester staple fiber from Korea and Taiwan, but withdrew its support mid-investigation. CIT ruled that the International Trade Commission’s exclusion of Nan Ya from the affected domestic producer (ADP) list of firms eligible for CDSOA benefits was in accordance with the law and, as has been the case in past CIT decisions, dismissed Nan Ya’s First Amendment free speech claims and Fifth Amendment equal protection claims as foreclosed by the precedent of the court of appeals’ ruling in SKF v. U.S. CIT also said the retroactivity of CDSOA (domestic companies did not know that non-support of the petition would prevent CDSOA funds distribution at the time of the investigation) does not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment because Congress had a rational legislative purpose. (CIT Slip Op. 12-92, dated 07/12/12, Judges Carman, Stanceu, and Gordon)
The Department of Justice reported the unsealing of charges against Saeed Talebi, an Iranian national arrested July 12 in connection with a scheme to illegally export from the United States to Iran parts and goods designed for use in industrial operations. According to the indictment, on numerous occasions throughout 2011, Talebi and others worked to ship industrial parts and goods from United States-based firms to Dubai, acting through a company identified in the Indictment as “Company-1.” These items were then to be sent to various petrochemical companies located in Iran without the required OFAC export license, DOJ said. In the course of this scheme, Talebi also caused money to be wired to the United States, including over $300,000 sent to a bank account in Manhattan.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement seized 70 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit merchandise by mimicking legitimate websites selling authentic merchandise and duping consumers into unknowingly buying counterfeit goods that were imported from abroad, it said. According to ICE, Many of the websites so closely resembled the legitimate websites that it would be difficult for even the most discerning consumer to tell the difference.