In a consolidation of multiple cases, eight domestic producers of crawfish tail meat, together with tapered roller bearings producer Koyo Corporation of U.S.A and antifriction bearings producer SKF USA, Inc., challenged the constitutionality of the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (CDSOA, or Byrd Amendment), and the administration of that statute by the International Trade Commission and Customs and Border Protection. Because they had not supported the petitions leading to the AD orders on crawfish tail meat or antifriction bearings, the companies were not included on the ITC’s lists of “affected domestic producers” (ADPs). Among other claims, they argued that the petition support requirement violated their First Amendment free speech, Fifth Amendment equal protection, and Fifth Amendment due process rights.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced on March 13, 2012 that Charles Wright, former president of ESM Group Inc., a specialty metal powder supplier, has pleaded guilty to smuggling magnesium powder into the U.S. and avoiding a 305.56% antidumping duty for such merchandise from China.
The Justice Department announced on March 13, 2012 that Jean Rene Duperval, a former director of international relations for Telecommunications D’Haiti S.A.M. (Haiti Teleco), a Haitian state-owned telecommunications company, has been convicted for his role in a scheme to launder bribes paid to him by two Miami-based telecommunications companies in violation of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The Court of International Trade upheld the International Trade Administration’s choice of a surrogate value for nitric acid of 35.08 Indian rupees per kilogram, in a remand following the December 2007 - November 2008 AD administrative review of carbazole violet pigment 23 from China. The court had previously ordered the agency to explain its use of a value 12 times higher than what the domestic petitioners proposed, based on a source which the ITA itself had rejected in a prior review because it contained aberrational high values.
Domestic producer Mid-Continent Nail Corporation challenged a ruling by the International Trade Administration excluding nails imported in home tool kits from the scope of the August 1, 2008 AD order on certain steel nails from China. The Court of International Trade, finding that the ITA had applied contradictory approaches in cases where merchandise covered by AD orders is imported in kits with non-covered items, ruled that "[s]uch inconsistency in agency procedure is not permitted," and instructed the ITA to "identify a test it will employ consistently," with a legal justification.
The Court of International Trade has ruled that the proper classification of various imported weather measurement devices and clocks is made according to their essential character. In consideration of the devices' primary functionality and marketing, the CIT ruled that those with predominantly weather-related features are properly classified as other thermometers under heading 9025 or other meteorological instruments under 9015. The CIT found those devices with predominantly clock-related features are other clocks under 9105.
Following recent appeals court decisions that asked the International Trade Administration to explain its continued practice of zeroing (excluding the negative dumping margins of non-dumped imports from overall dumping margin) in administrative reviews after having ended it in investigations, the Court of International Trade has accepted a partly new set of justifications from the ITA. This CIT ruling comes on the heels of the ITA's final rule that eliminated zeroing as the normal procedure in administrative reviews.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida has announced that Elias Garcia and Maria Plancarte have each been sentenced to one year and one day in prison, followed by terms of supervised release of two years, for conspiring to violate the Lacey Act by smuggling jaguar skins from Mexico and trafficking in them in the U.S. They also face deportation from the U.S. upon completion of their term of imprisonment. No fine was imposed as the judge determined the defendants could not afford a criminal fine. The jaguar is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Under cover of a plant seed company that Garcia and Plancarte jointly operated, the defendants sold two jaguar pelts to undercover Fish and Wildlife Service agents and planned a future sale of up to 10 jaguar pelts to be smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Serviced has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for its approval, a proposed rule entitled: "Forfeiture Procedures Under the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act Amendments."
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on February 29, 2012 to remand, in part, for further proceedings the International Trade Commission’s negative final determination in the patent infringement proceedings on certain variable speed wind turbines and components thereof (337-TA-641). In response to a petition by General Electric to ITC that Mitsubishi had infringed on three patents (‘039, ‘221, and ‘985), the ITC’s January 2010 final determination had held that no patents were infringed and/or the domestic industry requirement was not met. The ‘039 patent expired on February 1, 2011, and CAFC dismissed that portion of the appeal as moot, vacating the ITC’s rulings as to that patent. CAFC now affirms the ITC’s ruling that the ‘221 patent is not infringed, but reverses the ITC’s determination of no domestic industry as to the ‘985 patent, and remands for further proceedings.