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Transparency International today released its annual 2009 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) that measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in countries. The 2009 CPI scores 180 countries on a scale from zero (highly corrupt) to ten (highly clean) using 13 sources from 10... This is a summary of the article. Click on the above link or visit www.tradelawnews.com to read the entire article. Posted on November 17, 2009 at 06:10 am

The Census Bureau's Foreign Trade Division (FTD) recently started providing U.S. Principal Parties in Interest (USPPIs) and other filers requesting their Electronic Export Information filed in the Automated Export System (AES) with the 10 data elements required in routed export... This is a summary of the article. Click on the above link or visit www.tradelawnews.com to read the entire article. Posted on November 12, 2009 at 07:19 pm

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced today that it is offering for the first time a webcast of the sold-out 2009 Trade Symposium that will be held in Washington, DC from December 8 - 10, 2009. All general sessions of the Trade Symposium will be shown as part of the live webcast and... This is a summary of the article. Click on the above link or visit www.tradelawnews.com to read the entire article. Posted on November 10, 2009 at 10:33 am

The European Ombudsman has made public a version of his decision concluding his investigation into misconduct and maladministration by the Commission's DG Competition. Intel had complained to the European Ombudsman alleging two things. First that the Commission had failed to take minutes of a meeting with a senior Dell executive held on 23 August 2006, even though the meeting directly concerned the subject-matter of the Commission's anti-trust investigation of Intel. Second that the Commission... Posted on November 18, 2009 at 02:18 pm by Bartolus

Pregnant women must be entitled to effective judicial protection. So holds the Court of Justice in its judgment in Case C-63/08 Virginie Pontin v. T-Comalux SA. Thus, if national law lays down a time-limit for a pregnant woman dismissed from employment during pregnancy which is too short and also bars pregnant women from obtaining damages when other employees can get them, the law in question discriminates against women employees. The story goes like this. Ms Pontin worked for T-Comalux in... Posted on November 16, 2009 at 02:12 pm by Bartolus

The Council has adopted and published its decision to conclude the extradition and mutual legal assistance agreements between the USA and the EU. That means that both agreements are nearer to entering into force which should be on the first day following the third month after the date on which the Contracting Parties have exchanged instruments indicating that they have completed their internal procedures for this purpose. Both agreements were signed by the Council in 2003 so it's taken a while.... Posted on November 14, 2009 at 10:58 am by Bartolus

The National Jurist carries a cover story on the subject in its November issue, available in full online. It includes some startling information (apparently, 82% of Baker & McKenzie's lawyers work outside the United States). The "Top International Law Firms" chart is misleadingly titled, however. A more accurate title might be "Law Firms With Highest Foreign Presence." Posted on November 17, 2009 at 09:58 am by Anupam Chander

Harvard Magazine runs a nice piece discussing the "ambivalence we sometimes feel about new technologies that reveal identifiable personal information." Latanya Sweeney's research, in particular, is pretty startling: "Fully 87 percent of the United States population is uniquely identified by date of birth, five-digit zip code, and gender, she says: "So if I know only those three things about you, I can identify you by name 87 percent of the time. Pretty cool."" Posted on October 20, 2009 at 01:16 pm by Anupam Chander

The Yale Journal of International Law is hosting a symposium on my new paper, Trade 2.0, at the online site, Opinio Juris. My first entry in the symposium is titled: "The New Global Traders on Your iPhone." International trade expert Mark Wu will provide the commentary. Posted on October 20, 2009 at 06:56 am by Anupam Chander

On December 10, 2009, the Federal Circuit is scheduled to hear oral argument in Ajinomoto Co., Inc. v. ITC (2009-1081). By way of background, on April 25, 2006, Ajinomoto Heartland LLC filed a complaint with the ITC alleging that Global Bio-Chem Technology Group Co., Ltd.; Changchun Dacheng Bio-Chem Engineering Development Co., Ltd.; Changchun Baocheng Bio Development Co., Ltd.; Changchun Dahe Bio Technology Development Co., Ltd.; and Bio-Chem Technology (HK) Ltd. (collectively, "GBT") were... Posted on November 20, 2009 at 02:44 pm by Tom Fisher

On November 18, 2009, ALJ Carl C. Charneski issued Order No. 17: Procedural Schedule in Certain Connecting Devices ("Quick Clamps") For Use With Modular Compressed Air Conditioning Units, Including Filters, Regulators, and Lubricators ("FRL's") That Are Part Of Larger Pneumatic Systems and the FRL Units They Connect (Inv. No. 337-TA-587). Please note that Oblon Spivak represents Respondents SMC Corporation and SMC Corporation of America in this matter. According to the Order, a one-day... Posted on November 20, 2009 at 01:07 pm by Eric Schweibenz

On November 18, 2009 ALJ Robert K. Rogers, Jr. issued Order No. 14 denying respondent Sidergas SpA's ("Sidergas") motion for summary determination of invalidity of claim 1 of U.S. Patent No. 6,260,781 (the '781 patent) in Certain Bulk Welding Wire Containers and Components Thereof and Welding Wire (Inv. No. 337-TA-686). According to the Order, Sidergas filed its summary determination motion on October 27, 2009. Complainants Lincoln Electric Company and Lincoln Global, Inc. (collectively... Posted on November 19, 2009 at 12:33 pm by Eric Schweibenz

&#xe4&#xb8&#xad&#xe6&#x96&#x87&#xe8&#xaf&#xb7&#xe7&#x82&#xb9&#xe5&#x87&#xbb&#xe8&#xbf&#x99&#xe9&#x87&#x8c The Chinese Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") announced on November 6, 2009 that it had launched anti-dumping ("AD") and countervailing ("CVD") investigations against sedans and sport utility vehicles of cylinder capacity &#xe2&#x89&#xa5 2000cc originating from the United States. We are providing on this blog an English translation of the CVD notice. This announcement represents the third CVD investigation initiated against U.S. products in less than six months. So far, Chinese... Posted on November 16, 2009 at 09:40 am

Coauthored by Elliot J. Feldman and John J. Burke The last of the quotas on textile and clothing imported into the United States from the developing world expired at the end of 2008 with the end of the quotas authorized by China's Protocol of Accession to the WTO. Notwithstanding the end of the quotas, trade in textiles and clothing remains distorted by a web of bilateral agreements that give preferential access to the U.S. market on a quasi colonial basis. Dr. Elliot J. Feldman discussed these... Posted on November 3, 2009 at 03:13 pm

&#xe4&#xb8&#xad&#xe6&#x96&#x87&#xe8&#xaf&#xb7&#xe7&#x82&#xb9&#xe5&#x87&#xbb&#xe8&#xbf&#x99&#xe9&#x87&#x8c We noted in our article entitled India, China, and the Doha Round that India and China have forged a formidable alliance in the Doha Round of negotiations. Now the two "Asian giants" have combined forces in an effort to gain leverage in another multilateral dialogue - this time, the dialogue on climate change that will take place in Copenhagen later this year. India and China signed an agreement ("Agreement") on October 21, 2009 on climate change, providing further... Posted on October 30, 2009 at 02:44 pm

According to a media release of 25 October 2009 from the Australian Trade Minister, it has been agreed that the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement will come into force on 1 January 2010 following discussion between ASEAN leaders at the East Asia Summit which took place last weekend. As previously reported and as set out in the media release, the Free Trade Agreement will establish the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade area spanning 12 economies with over 600,000 million... Posted on October 25, 2009 at 07:27 pm

On April 21, 2008, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision which confirmed a long line of holdings from courts in other parts of the country finding that a Customs official at a border is not required to have probable cause before requiring a traveler to turn on his computer and allow its contents to be viewed. The case is U.S. v Arnold, No. 06-50581, D.C. No. CR05-00772-DDP. Mr. Arnold had been in the Philippines on a three week trip. Upon arrival at LAX, he was asked by Customs... Posted on October 18, 2009 at 01:53 pm

Entitled the Customs Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Reauthorization Act of 2009, the new bill introduced in the Senate, see S. 1631 at [thomas.loc.gov] The Principal Deputy Commissioner is delegated organizational authority over the activities of CBP, while the enforcement authority remains with the Deputy Commissioner, who remains the top civil service employee of the agency. Given the confusion and outright inability to pursue effective enforcement of many trade fraud cases caused by the... Posted on October 3, 2009 at 07:32 pm