The Commerce Department violated the law in finding that Nur Gemicilik is a cross-owned input supplier of Turkish exporter and mandatory countervailing duty review respondent Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret, Kaptan argued in a May 12 complaint at the Court of International Trade. While Nur provided Kaptan with scrap generated from its shipbuilding enterprise, the amount was "extremely miniscule," precluding Nur from being a cross-owned input supplier, the complaint said (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. U.S., CIT #22-00149).

The U.S. should take steps to address a range of loopholes in its export control regimes, including its inability to conduct end-use checks in China and unregulated technology transfers resulting from outbound investments, said Nazak Nikakhtar, former acting head of the Bureau of Industry and Security. “We have a lot of gaping holes in our export control system,” Nikakhtar told the Senate Intelligence Committee May 11. “I think we really need to tighten those up.”

The Court of International Trade told the Commerce Department in a May 12 opinion that if it doesn't appeal its position on China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, it must explain why the court should not provide some sort of "equitable relief" including an injunction on the continued imposition of countervailing duties on the program. Judge Jane Restani also remanded Commerce's positions relating to its land value and ocean freight benchmarks while upholding the agency's specificity finding for the subsidization of energy in China.

The Court of International Trade in a May 12 opinion sustained parts and remanded parts of the Commerce Department's final results in the 2017 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on solar cells from China. Judge Jane Restani upheld Commerce's specificity finding for the subsidization of electricity in China while sending back elements relating to the use of adverse facts available over China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, Commerce's land value benchmark and ocean freight benchmark. Restani said that if Commerce drops the EBCP from its subsidy calculation but doesn't appeal, as it has done in the past, it must explain why the court shouldn't provide some other form of relief such as an injunction on the continued inclusion of the program with no attempt at verification of non-use.

CBP will soon launch a pilot program to electronically process export documents for used vehicles, the agency said in a notice released May 9. The voluntary pilot, open to exports of any “used self propelled vehicles” (USPVs) that can be driven on land but not rail, is aimed at expediting and modernizing the agency's document submission and review process, CBP said.

The U.S. cannot demand Customs Passenger Processing Fee payments for trips for which customers have canceled their tickets and are issued refunds in the form of travel vouchers, Southwest Airlines argued in a May 6 complaint at the Court of International Trade. CBP's move to collect the fees violates the statute's plain terms, which lay out that CBP is entitled to this fee only when a passenger actually travels on a plane from outside the U.S. into the U.S., the complaint said (Southwest Airlines Co. v. U.S., CIT #22-00141).

The Biden administration’s Monday announcement (see 2205060046) that 20 ISPs committed to offer low-income households broadband plans with download speeds of at least 100 Mbps at no more than $30 per month got a mixed reception among communications policy stakeholders. All of the participating ISPs -- which include Altice, AT&T, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Frontier, Mediacom and Verizon -- were already part of the FCC’s affordable connectivity program that subsidizes qualifying households’ broadband up to $30 per month. The White House said the participating ISPs cover more than 80% of the U.S. population.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau warned of possible forfeitures of up to $2 million each for owners of properties used for broadcasting pirate radio stations, said four enforcement bureau letters released Wednesday. The letters went to Kent and Deanna Coppinger in Summerville, Oregon; Edwin and Joyce Pitt in Baltimore; Maria Hernandez in Kissimmee, Florida; and Richard Manson in Philadelphia. The recipients have 10 days to respond to the letters with evidence that they are no longer permitting pirate radio on their property, the letters said. “In addition, we request that you identify the individual(s) engaged in pirate radio broadcasting on the property that you own or manage,” the letters said. "As operators may be hard to identify, the ability to seek penalties against landlords, who are readily identifiable from local land records, gives the FCC a much stronger tool with which to combat pirate radio operators," wrote Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Thursday.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control issued Russia-related general licenses 7A, 26A, 31 and 32 on May 5. The licenses allow emergency overflight and landings of U.S. aircraft in Russia and the filing and prosecution of infringement of various intellectual property protection, as well as the wind-down of transactions with Amsterdam Trade Bank NV and Sberbank subsidiaries through 12:01 a.m. EDT July 12. OFAC also published one new frequently asked question on Afghanistan-related sanctions and updated one FAQ on Ukraine-/Russia-related sanctions.

NTCA asked FCC Wireline Bureau staff to reconsider the affordable connectivity program's non-usage rules or grant additional time for companies serving tribal consumers, said an ex parte posted Wednesday in docket 21-450 (see 2204150057). Some of the group's smaller members "will have substantial difficulty with" the rules, Vice President-Federal Regulatory Brian Ford told staff, noting at least one member company serving customers on tribal lands with fully subsidized plans would need to use an automated process for tracking usage because doing so manually "would be nearly impossible." Tribal areas "pose unique challenges," Ford said, and it's "important to reconcile reasonably the prospect of a new program intended to increase broadband adoption in these areas and a non-usage provision that applied too strictly could undermine the success of these efforts."