A dispute panel at the World Trade Organization ruled this week that China's antidumping duties on stainless steel products from Japan violated global trade commitments. The ruling held a mix of findings for and against Japan's claims, leading each side to claim some form of victory.
The World Trade Organization is steadily headed towards irrelevancy to global trade and is facing a "long, slow sunset," said Peter Harrell, former senior director for international economics and competitiveness at the White House, during remarks at the Georgetown International Trade Update on June 13.
A Texas court dismissed charges related to a U.S. foreign bribery investigation involving Portuguese banker Paulo Jorge Da Costa Casequeiro Murta, ruling the U.S. violated the Speedy Trial Act by failing to bring Murta to trial within the 70-day limit set in the statute (United States v. Paulo Jorge Da Costa Casqueiro Murta, S.D. Tex. #4:17-00514).
The European Parliament passed a series of new rules requiring EU-based companies to identify and, where needed, end the "negative impact of their activities on human rights and the environment." Such activities include child labor, slavery, pollution and environmental degradation. In addition, these companies would have to "monitor and assess the impact on their value-chain partners," including suppliers, distribution and storage, the parliament said June 1.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed a suit from a group of investors that accused Ericsson of misleading them about elements of a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceeding. Judge William Kuntz sided with Ericsson, ruling that the investors failed to claim that the company made misstatements since the alleged lies were "immaterial as a matter of law" or not false when made (In Re Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson Securities Litigation, E.D.N.Y. # 22-1167).
The EU adopted the World Trade Organization fisheries subsidies agreement, the European Council announced May 25. The deal prohibits subsidies contributing to illegal and unreported fishing, bars subsidies for fishing on the unregulated high seas and imposes sustainability rules for subsidies in relation to the most vulnerable, overfished stocks. The U.S., Canada, Iceland, Seychelles, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates previously accepted the agreement, which was reached at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference in June (see 2305160015). The trade body requires a two-thirds threshold for the agreement to come into effect.
World Trade Organization members negatively affected by national security-related trade restrictions may be able to impose retaliatory measures as a way to address the U.S. gripe with the body's review of national security issues, former Office of the U.S. Trade Representative counsel Warren Maruyama and former WTO deputy director-general Alan Wolff said. In a working paper released by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Maruyama and Wolff propose a compromise to the U.S. position that national security claims are nonreviewable.
The European Commission this week proposed to reform its customs system, including by creating a single interface called the EU Customs Data Hub that will allow for the submission of all customs information on imports. Under the plan, the EU also would create an EU Customs Authority, which it said would boost cooperation between customs surveillance and law enforcement authorities at the EU and member state level, and would eliminate the de minimis threshold for imports under $162.
Amsterdam-based multinational conglomerate Koninklijke Philips will pay more than $62 million to settle charges it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to its sales of medical diagnostic equipment in China, the SEC announced. Without admitting guilt, Philips agreed to pay $15 million in civil penalties and over $47 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York should toss the U.S. claim that FTX crypto-exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's anti-bribery provision since the government failed to allege an essential element of the FCPA, Bankman-Fried said in a motion to dismiss. The U.S. said payments were made to unfreeze assets belonging to cryptocurrency firm Alameda Research but didn't say payments were made to "secure or retain a contract with a foreign government agency, gain an unfair advantage, or achieve an objective of the sort addressed in the FCPA’s text or legislative history or in relevant caselaw" (U.S. v. Samuel Bankman-Fried, S.D.N.Y. # 22-00673).