The Justice Department has announced that on May 26, 2011, Chun-Yu Zhao of Virginia and Donald Cone of Maryland, were convicted for their roles in a scheme to import and sell counterfeit Cisco-branded computer networking equipment.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied requests by the government, the International Trade Commission, and a domestic manufacturer to rehear a recent challenge to the ITC's determination that German light-weight thermal paper (LWTP) imports threatened the U.S. industry with injury. Overruling ITC and the Court of International Trade, CAFC issued a remand instructing ITC to examine prices and dumping margins of subcategories within a class or kind of subject merchandise.

The Court of International Trade has ruled in U.S. v. American Home Assurance Co. (AHAC), that U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s suspension of liquidation is not invalid if it fails to notify the surety of the suspension.

The Justice Department has announced that on May 17, 2011, Jacques Duplessis was charged with an indictment for allegedly engaging in a scheme to sell approximately 6,000 boxes of counterfeit LifeScan One Touch diabetic test strips purchased from suppliers in China and England. He allegedly sold the counterfeit strips to wholesale customers in the U.S. and Canada, who, in turn, sold those them to purchasers in pharmacies and other stores throughout the U.S. He is also charged with mail fraud and entry of goods into the U.S. through a false statement on a customs form.

In a voluntary remand requested by the International Trade Administration in the antidumping duty administrative review of certain lined paper products from China for the period April 17, 2006 - August 31, 2007, the ITA recalculated the inland freight costs of Shanghai Lian Li Paper Products Co., Ltd., using net weights from data supplied by the respondent, despite some errors in the data (the errors did not benefit the respondent). The Association of American School Paper Suppliers challenged the revised approach, but the Court of International Trade found the trade group failed to demonstrate any error by the ITA, and ruled that the ITA’s calculations were supported by substantial evidence. (Slip Op. 11-48, decided 04/27/11, posted 05/09/11)

Korean producer Hyosung Corporation did not respond by the deadline to a quantity and value questionnaire from the International Trade Administration in the initial stages of the February 2008 - January 2009 antidumping duty administrative review of certain cut-to-length carbon-quality steel (CTL) plate from Korea, then gave an incomplete response by fax only. The Court of International Trade dismissed Hyosung’s challenge to the 32.70% rate the ITA assigned it, ruling that the ITA was correct to reject the untimely and incomplete questionnaire, and finding that the adverse rate was supported by sufficient evidence. (Slip Op. 11-34, dated 03/31/11, posted 05/17/11)

Mid-Continent Nail Corporation, a domestic producer, challenged a ruling by the International Trade Administration that excluded nails 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 found the ITA has applied contradictory approaches in cases where merchandise covered by AD orders is imported in kits with non-covered items.

The Justice Department announced that Tenaris S.A. has voluntarily disclosed that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and has agreed to pay a total of $8.9 million in non-prosecution agreements with DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve these violations.

Following the decision by the Court of International Trade to sustain the negative injury determination by the International Trade Commission on the antidumping duty orders on ball bearings and parts thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom, the Timken Company moved to stay revocation of the orders prior to the completion of the third sunset review. However, the CIT found that Timken failed to make a sufficient case, and ordered the International Trade Administration to proceed with revocation of the two AD duty orders. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/25/11 news, 11042511, for summary of the ITC’s remand redetermination finding no injury to U.S. industry.) (Slip Op. 11-54, dated 05/13/11)

In a consolidated suit over the May 2005-April 2006 antidumping duty administrative review of ball bearings and parts thereof, seven Japanese producers challenged the International Trade Administration’s use of zeroing and the ITA’s methods for matching U.S. to home market sales for price comparisons. Noting that in a recent decision the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled the ITA’s continued use of zeroing in reviews after abandoning it in investigations was unsupported by law, the Court of International Trade ordered the ITA to reconsider its use of zeroing in the ball bearings review at issue. The CIT also ordered it to reconsider three aspects of its model matching methodology in response to the Japanese producers’ arguments. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/04/11 news, 11040408, for BP summary of CAFC decision overturning the continued use of zeroing in AD reviews.) (Slip Op. 11-52, dated 05/05/11)