Jacob Kopnick

Congress gave the Commerce Department wide latitude to go after "masked" dumping, the Court of International Trade said in a decision made public Nov. 15 that upheld the agency's differential pricing analysis.

The facilitator of the World Trade Organization's e-commerce work program called for members to submit their views on a work plan to structure talks on e-commerce between now and the 14th Ministerial Conference, which will take place in early 2026, with the goal of presenting recommendations at MC14, the WTO said.

A Venezuelan national was sentenced Nov. 14 to 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela, a Venezuelan state-owned oil company, DOJ announced.

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judges Kimberly Moore and Richard Taranto probed claims from both exporter Oman Fasteners and the U.S. during oral argument in a suit on the Commerce Department's selection of a surrogate financial statement in an administrative review of an antidumping duty order on steel nails from Oman (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1039).

Costa Rica formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Nov. 15, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 87. The WTO needs 24 more to reach the two-thirds of the membership threshold for the agreement to take effect.

The Court of International Trade on Nov. 14 dismissed petitioner Aloha Pencil Co.'s case challenging the Commerce Department's recission of the review of the antidumping duty order on cased pencils from China, covering entries in 2022-23. The court noted that Aloha Pencil failed to timely file a complaint. Counsel for the company didn't respond to request for comment (Aloha Pencil Co. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00192).

The Court of International Trade sustained 162 requests for Section 232 steel tariff exclusions submitted by importer California Steel Industries in a confidential decision, though the court remanded 31 separate exclusion denials. Judge M. Miller Baker said that should the Commerce Department grant any of the 31 remanded exclusion requests, it shall tell CBP "to honor them" by extending the exclusions to "otherwise-eligible entries" that had not finally liquidated by the fifth business day after the original exclusion request denials (California Steel Industries v. United States, CIT # 21-00015).

Nvidia CMP 170 HX graphics processing units should be excluded from Section 301 tariffs on China, importer Atlas Power argued in a Nov. 13 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade (Atlas Power v. United States, CIT # 23-00084).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 14 issued its mandate in a pair of antidumping and countervailing duty scope cases in which it sustained the Commerce Department's inclusion of door thresholds imported by Worldwide Door Components and Columbia Aluminum Products in the scope of the AD/CVD orders on aluminum extrusions from China (see 2410080046). The court said Commerce adequately explained that door thresholds are subassemblies and not qualified for the finished merchandise exception. The court affirmed that subassemblies and finished merchandise are "mutually exclusive categories" (Worldwide Door Components v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1532) (Columbia Aluminum Products v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1534).

The EU asked the World Trade Organization to establish a compliance panel regarding Colombia's tariffs on frozen fries from the EU, the Directorate-General for Trade announced Nov. 14. The bloc decided to make the move after consultations between the parties fell through, the Directorate-General said.