On December 1, 2014, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit at the Court of International Trade seeking over $1.5 million in penalties against two Quebecois companies for misclassifying numerous import entries of softwood lumber as hardwood lumber between May 2002 and August 2003. The Complaint was filed against Produits Forestiers Forexam and Scierie […]
Federal Circuit affirms Almond Bros. and Union Steel – after years of unnecessary uncertainty
Earlier this month, the Federal Circuit in Almond Bros. v. United States (Fed. Cir. July 1, 2013) dismissed is a challenge to the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement term that Canada distribute funds to members of a domestic softwood lumber industry group brought by lumber companies that were not members. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative […]
Federal Circuit Hears Trio of Trade Cases
On March 7, 2013, three separate three-judge panels of the Federal Circuit conducted oral argument on important international trade cases. Union Steel v. United States is the latest in the long line of challenges to the “zeroing” methodology in which the Department of Commerce calculates antidumping duty (AD) dumping margins without offsetting sales above normal […]
CIT Rules in Enforcement Action on Softwood Lumber Agreement
In opinions issued in December 2012 (cit.uscourts.gov/SlipOpinions) and January 2013 (cit.uscourts.gov/SlipOpinions), the Court of International Trade issued important rulings in an action brought to enforce the 1996 Softwood Lumber Agreement. Even though the 1996 SLA expired in 2001, these decisions have continuing relevance for the current SLA, which entered into force in 2006. First, some […]
Surge of enforcement and surety-related cases filed at the U.S. Court of International Trade in the first half of 2011
Twelve new enforcement actions were filed at the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) in the first six months of 2011. The government is commendably increasing its efforts to investigate and prosecute duty evasion. These cases involve multiple circumvention schemes, such as mislabeling in Kenpo Jeans and Active Frontier Int’l where merchandise was identified as […]