The Court of International Trade remanded parts and sustained parts of the Commerce Department's countervailing duty investigation of phosphate fertilizers from Russia. CIT Judge Jane Restani in a July 11 opinion upheld Commerce's tier-three benchmark calculation for natural gas, which included the import-specific 20% value-added tax and 5% import duty, along with the agency's decision to countervail phosphate rock mining licenses issued by the Russian government to exporters EuroChem and PhosAgro. Restani remanded Commerce's decision to use a "profit before tax" figure to account for exported phosphate rock prices when calculating PhosAgro's profit ratio, as well as Commerce's reliance on PhosAgro's cost information and its explanation for why it found EuroChem's cost information supported.
Ben Perkins
Ben Perkins, Assistant Editor, is a reporter with International Trade Today and its sister publications, Trade Law Daily and Export Compliance Daily, where he covers sanctions, court rulings, and other international trade issues. He previously worked as a trade analyst for a Washington D.C. advisory firm. Ben holds a B.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire and an M.A. in International Relations from American University. Ben joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2022.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
CBP’s determination that the entries of softwood lumber imported by Fraserview Remanufacturing had been deemed liquidated and the agency's posting of liquidation notices can't be challenged at the Court of International Trade because a protest contesting that determination is currently being adjudicated by CBP, DOJ said in a July 11 dismissal motion (Fraserview Remanufacturing v. U.S., CIT # 23-00063).
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated July 11 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The Commerce Department was not required to credit countervailing duty respondent Jiangsu Alcha Aluminum's claims of non-use of the Export Buyer’s Credit Program (EBCP) and correctly applied adverse facts available, DOJ said in a July 10 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The brief came in reply to Alcha's April motion for judgment, in which it contested the agency's methodology during the administrative review of a countervailing duty order on common alloy aluminum sheet from China (see 2304170048) (Jiangsu Alcha Aluminum Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00290).
The Court of International Trade should affirm Commerce Department margin calculations for Mexican exporters Simec, Acerero and Sidertul in the 2019-20 antidumping duty administrative review on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Mexico, the Rebar Trade Action Coalition (RTAC) said in its July 10 motion at the Court of International Trade (Grupo Simec v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 22-00202).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
A horizontal lawnmower engine should not have been included under the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc from China in a Commerce Department scope ruling simply because it is used in walk-behind mowers, exporter Zhejiang Amerisun Technology said in a July 7 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade (Zhejiang Amerisun Technology v. U.S., CIT # 23-00011).
The Commerce Department's decision to countervail glass subsidies on remand improperly relied on post hoc rationalization, plaintiff-appellant Guangzhou Jangho Curtain Wall System Engineering said during July 10 oral arguments at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Taizhou United Imp. & Exp. Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2000).