International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
NEW ORLEANS -- Federal Maritime Commissioner Max Vekich signaled he’s open to a further expansion of FMC authority, including potentially allowing the FMC to scrutinize certain rail storage fees.
Telehealth provider Hey Favor filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection April 18, and that filing triggered an automatic stay under the bankruptcy code in the privacy class action against the company filed in January by plaintiff Jane Doe (see 2303270047), said a notice Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-00059) in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Its bankruptcy petition is pending before U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Morris, said the notice. Plaintiff Doe alleges Hey Favor knowingly and intentionally sent personally identifiable information about her medical history to Meta, TikTok and other social media platforms. Biotechnology firm Veru is Hey Favor’s largest unsecured creditor, owed $3.9 million in trade debt, said Hey Favor’s Chapter 11 petition (docket 23-41091) in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Northern Texas in Fort Worth. Its second-largest creditor is Latham & Watkins, owed $1.6 million in legal fees, followed by Google, owed just under $900,000 in trade debt, said the petition.
The Commerce Department properly used financial statements from Indian company Sundram as the source of surrogate financial data in the antidumping duty investigation on steel nails from Oman, despite evidence the company received countervailable subsidies, the U.S. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After Commerce winnowed potential surrogate companies from 11, the two remaining companies -- Hi-Tech Fastener Manufacturer and Sundram -- received subsidies. Since Sundram's data was contemporaneous with the investigation period and Hi-Tech's was not, Commerce legally went with Sundram, the government said in its reply brief (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1039).
NEW ORLEANS -- Federal Maritime Commissioner Max Vekich signaled he’s open to a further expansion of FMC authority, including potentially allowing the FMC to scrutinize certain rail storage fees.
Window Opening for Export Provisions in Customs Bill as CBP, Census Address Clerical Error Penalties
NEW ORLEANS -- The time may be coming soon to incorporate exporter priorities in upcoming customs modernization legislation, including provisions addressing clerical errors, as CBP and the Census Bureau also work to include language on clerical errors in penalty mitigation guidelines, CBP officials said during a panel discussion April 26.
The Commerce Department erred in its selection of surrogate values and data sets in an antidumping duty investigation on mobile access equipment and subassemblies from China, the Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment said in a reply brief filed April 25 at the Court of International Trade. The court should remand the final determination in the AD investigation to Commerce, the coalition argued (Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment v. U.S., CIT # 22-00152).
A majority in the House voted to restore antidumping and countervailing duties on Southeast Asian solar panels ruled by the Commerce Department to be circumventing antidumping duties on the products from China, but the 221 votes in favor are far from a veto-proof majority.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the weeks of April 10-16 and 17-23.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade: