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.
The Federal Maritime Commission is preparing for another uptick in enforcement and is expecting a range of rulemakings to be finalized during or before FY 2025, including a new charge complaint process, a new container data collection effort and a new electronic court case management system. The commission previewed those updates as part of a $48.4 million congressional funding request released this week for FY 2025 -- about a $5 million increase from the $43.7 million it requested the previous year (see 2303200063).
Ford Motor Company agreed to pay $365 million to settle allegations that it knowingly undervalued hundreds of thousands of cargo vans, DOJ announced. The settlement comes five years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that CBP properly classified Ford's Transit Connect vehicles as cargo vans, dutiable at 25%, and not as passenger vans, dutiable at 2.5%.
Former President Donald Trump defended his proposal to increase tariffs on all imports by 10% (see 2308290005), saying it would incentivize American and foreign companies to build factories in the U.S. instead of other countries.
The International Trade Commission published notices in the March 11 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):
A retired semiconductor designer seeks a general exclusion order banning imports of dynamic random access memory device integrated circuits from the Taiwanese company Etron Technology that allegedly infringe on his patents, he said in a Section 337 complaint filed with the International Trade Commission March 4. Wen Lin, a U.S. citizen that now lives in Taiwan, also seeks a cease and desist order against Etron. Comments are due to the ITC by March 19, the commission said in a notice.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register March 11 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department issued a correction to a recent notice expanding its ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty administrative reviews on quartz surface products from China (A-570-084/C-570-085). The AD review will cover entries Nov. 4, 2021, through June 30, 2023, Commerce said. Likewise, the CVD review, which covered entries in calendar year 2022, will now cover entries Nov. 4, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2022, Commerce said, correcting the start dates for the AD/CVD periods of review. The expanded review periods will allow Commerce to consider entries of quartz surface products from Malaysia made from Chinese quartz slab that the agency found are covered by the scope of the AD/CVD orders, Commerce said in the original notice (see 2402230073). The 2022 scope ruling applies to entries on or after Nov. 4, 2021 (see 2210240036).
The Commerce Department finalized its preliminary finding (see 2401150001) that four Canadian companies are cross-owned entities for the purposes of countervailing duties on softwood lumber products from Canada (C-122-858). Commerce said it continues to find that Interfor Corporation, EACOM Timber Corporation, Chaleur Forest Products Inc., and Chaleur Forest Products LP are cross-owned entities, in the final results of a changed circumstances review released March 11.
The Commerce Department is again amending the final results of a countervailing duty administrative review on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China (C-570-980), covering entries during the calendar year 2019 review period. It said its revision to the countervailable subsidy rates assigned to JA Solar Technology Yangzhou Co., Ltd. (JA Solar) and Risen Energy Co., Ltd. (Risen) is due to a recent Court of International Trade judgment that affected the way it calculated the rate.