The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Texas resident Mohammed Aldalki is suing the Bureau of Industry and Security and CBP, alleging that they illegally detained his 2021 Mercedes before it could be exported to Jordan.
New Mexico resident Canyon Anthony Amarys, a U.S. national guardsman, was arrested last week after DOJ said he tried to provide an export-controlled radio to someone he believed was a Russian intelligence official. He was charged with attempting to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
The Trump administration filed its reply brief on Oct. 30 in the Supreme Court cases on the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, addressing a host of arguments relating to the text of the IEEPA, all of the statute's requirements and the history of the measure (Donald J. Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, U.S. 25-250) (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, U.S. 24-1287).
Kuang Chiang, a former licensing officer at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Morrison Foerster as of counsel in its national security group, the firm announced this week. Most recently, Chiang was counsel at A&O Shearman, where she worked for more than eight years. Chiang served as a licensing officer at OFAC during 2009-2012.
The U.S. sought Rule 37 sanctions Oct. 29 against an importer of steel hangers after he failed to appear for depositions in several civil duty evasion cases. It asked the Court of International Trade for default judgments in all three cases (United States v. Zhe “John” Liu, CIT #s 22-00215, 23-00116, 24-00132).
The Commerce Department reasonably found that antidumping duty petitioner Habich GmbH isn't affiliated with its North American sales agent and calculated normal value based on Habich's Mexican sales in the 2021-22 administrative review of the AD order on Austrian strontium chromate, the Court of International Trade held on Oct. 29.
Antonia Tzinova, a former partner at Holland & Knight, has joined Weil as a partner in the regulatory transactions group, the firm announced. Tzinova had worked at Holland for more than 20 years, leading its Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. and industrial security team. Her practice will center on export controls, sanctions, CFIUS and cross-border investment matters, Weil said.
Solar cell exporter Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co. said neither the Court of International Trade nor the Commerce Department addressed the exporter's claim that the nature of the production compelled a negative determination in the antidumping and countervailing duties anti-circumvention inquiry on solar cells from Vietnam. Filing comments on Commerce's remand results in a case on the circumvention proceedings, Trina Solar said the court can now address whether the significance of the statutory "nature and production process" factor "can be reconciled with" Commerce's affirmative circumvention finding "when the circumvention provisions were enacted to address 'screwdriver' operations" (Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00228).
Blake Hulnick left his role as an attorney adviser with the Office of Foreign Assets Control to rejoin Covington, where he will advise on economic sanctions, export controls and other national security-related enforcement topics. Hulnick had worked at OFAC since July 2023.