Trade attorney Ping Gong is leaving The Bristol Group. Gong filed notifications terminating her access to business proprietary information in a slew of cases at the Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Gong held an of counsel position at The Bristol Group since 2015.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
While antidumping duty respondent Goodluck India Limited does not oppose DOJ's motion to partially dismiss its case, it wants the Court of International Trade to find jurisdiction for its case under Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction. Responding to the partial dismissal motion in an April 22 reply brief, Goodluck used the opportunity to also characterize the U.S. government's statement of facts as "inaccurate" (Goodluck India Limited v. United States, CIT #22-00024).
The Court of International Trade should not grant a stay in a consolidated antidumping matter pending resolution of a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit since the impact of this case is "speculative at best," DOJ said in an April 21 reply brief. Further, the stay should be denied since the Federal Circuit case, Stupp Corp. v. United States, may only affect two legal issues in the case led by exporter Koehler Paper, leaving six issues unaffected, DOJ argued (Matra Americas v. United States, CIT Consol. #21-00632).
Producing a large volume of evidence does not establish the relevance or persuasiveness of such evidence, plaintiff Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee said in an April 19 brief blasting the Commerce Department's evidentiary record in an antidumping duty and countervailing duty exclusion case. Merely handing over a list of record information does not substitute for an explanation of how the evidence supports the exclusion finding, AEFTC said (Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee v. United States, CIT #21-00253).
Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Stanceu granted a motion from importer Nutricia North America that asked to reopen discovery to replace the company's expert witness in an ongoing case regarding classification of infant formulas (Nutricia North America v. United States, CIT #16-00008). Nutricia asked for the record to be reopened after it discovered that its witness, Dr. Joel Lavine, was convicted of sexually abusing an adult former patient. With the order from Judge Timothy Stanceu, Nutricia will replace Lavine with Dr. Jonah Essers.
With negotiations expected to begin in earnest soon on the House and Senate's trade packages, staffers in both chambers of Congress say there could be support for antidumping and countervailing duty reform and language around Section 301 tariff exclusions, but the likelihood of a dramatic de minimis change seems somewhat remote.
The defendant-intervenors in an antidumping duty case, Insteel Wire Products Co., Sumiden Wire Products Corp. and Wire Mesh Corp., signed off on the Commerce Department's remand results at the Court of International Trade applying partial adverse facts available. The remand results accepted certain of Turkish exporter Celik Halat's questionnaire responses that it originally denied due to being filed 21 minutes late. The result dropped Commerce's use of total AFA to partial AFA (Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi v. United States, CIT #21-00045).
A Mexican union and a U.S. nonprofit, Rethink Trade, jointly filed a rapid response complaint Monday with the U.S. Labor Department against Panasonic Automotive's plant in Reynosa, Mexico, alleging workers there are being denied the right of free association and collective bargaining. The complaint was filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement on free trade. The plant manufactures automotive audio systems and displays for export to the U.S. and other markets. The union complainant, Sindicato Nacional Independiente de Trabajadores de Industrias y de Servicios "Movimiento 20/32" (SNITIS), says more than 600 workers at the plant asked the organization to be their new union, but Panasonic is collaborating with an alternative union, Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexico (CTM). According to the complaint, the plant has about 2,000 workers. SNITIS and Rethink Trade say Panasonic fired more than 60 workers who support SNITIS, and alleged Panasonic won't sign a contract with the union that receives the majority of the votes in elections scheduled for Thursday and Friday. Panasonic reached a contract with CTM, and the company started withholding union dues for that union March 25, the complaint says. The petition asks that dues deductions end, and that fired workers get reinstated with full back pay and interest. It also says the contract with the CTM union must be terminated, and the Mexican government should order the company to negotiate in good faith with whichever union wins the elections. The last time the U.S. was asked to start a rapid response case against a Mexican factory, it took a month for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and the Labor Department to announce they would begin consultations with the Mexican government over the issue. USTR didn't comment, nor did Panasonic Automotive. If the U.S. government brings a case, the Mexican government would have 10 days to declare if it will look into whether the complaint has merit.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: