David Rivera, a former Republican member of Congress from Florida, was charged this week with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act after he allegedly failed to report receiving millions of dollars in exchange for lobbying the Trump administration to remove sanctions on a Venezuelan businessman.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department appropriately found that details about U.S. seafood seller Luscious Seafood's wholesaling operations don't support the company's claim that it was a bona fide wholesaler of the domestic like product, the U.S. argued in a reply brief filed last week at the Court of International Trade. The government said that, as a result, Commerce permissibly found Luscious' request for an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam to be invalid (Luscious Seafood v. United States, CIT # 24-00069).
The Court of International Trade in a pair of decisions sustained the Commerce Department's use of neutral facts available against respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. in the 33rd review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China and the agency's use of adverse facts available against the respondent in the AD order's 34th review. Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce reasonably found in the 34th review that Tainai was aware of its unaffiliated suppliers' past non-cooperation but failed to work to the best of its ability to secure their cooperation.
The U.S. this week arrested a dual U.S.-Iranian national living in Massachusetts and an Iranian national, charging both with conspiring to ship "sophisticated electronic components" from the U.S. to Iran in violation of U.S. export controls and sanctions.
The Court of International Trade in a pair of decisions sustained the Commerce Department's 33rd and 34th reviews of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Stephen Vaden upheld Commerce's decision on remand to use neutral facts available against respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. in the 33rd review and the agency's use of adverse facts available against the same company in the 34th review. In the 33rd review, Commerce used neutral facts available after declaring that it can't conclude that the exporter has enough control over its suppliers to induce their cooperation. In the 34th review, the agency said Tainai was aware of its suppliers' prior non-cooperation, yet failed to undertake best efforts to induce their cooperation.
The Council of the European Union announced a new prohibition on the recognition or enforcement of rulings from Russian courts, it announced as part of its most recent sanctions package on Russia this week. The move was based on Article 248 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and notes that rulings from Russian courts have prevented opposing parties from starting or continuing proceedings in jurisdictions other than Russia "in clear violation of established international principles and practices."
An indictment was unsealed last week charging Russian national Alexey Komov with conspiracy and U.S. sanctions violations stemming from his aid to sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced. Komov allegedly conspired with Malofeyev to recruit an American citizen, Jack Hanick, to start and operate a television network in Russia.
The U.S. last week indicted 14 North Korean nationals working as part of a “long-running” conspiracy to violate U.S. sanctions. DOJ said they used fake or borrowed identities of Americans and others to pose as remote information technology employees for U.S. companies and generate revenue for the North Korean government.
In light of speculation about whether President-elect Donald Trump will use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, observers are revisiting the lone decision in the history of U.S. case law reviewing emergency trade action: U.S. v. Yoshida International.