A recent legal case in the EU helped clear up how the European Commission considers the factors it points to when identifying if a company has evaded antidumping duties, said Simran Sethi, senior manager at OCR Global Trade Management Software Solutions, during an Aug. 30 webinar. Speaking to the importance of import compliance in light of recent judicial developments in the U.S. and abroad, Sethi laid out the four criteria the commission considers when making its evasion findings.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. backed the Commerce Department's valuation of exporter Jilin Bright Future Chemical's inputs of bituminous coal and coal tar as part of the 2020-21 review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China. Filing its response to Jilin Bright's claims (see 2306080054) at the Court of International Trade, the government argued that the exporter failed to dispute Commerce's formula for converting useful heat value (UHV) to gross calorific value (GCV) as part of the BT coal valuation at the administrative level. As a result, Jilin Bright did not exhaust its administrative remedies, the brief said (Jilin Bright Future Chemicals Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00336).
Exporter Tau-Ken Temir waived its arguments against the Commerce Department's decision to grant the company's first two extension requests in part and reject the third request, the U.S. argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government said that because TKT did not raise the issues either at Commerce or at the Court of International Trade in its case on the countervailing duty investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan, the appellate court need not address the claims (Tau-Ken Temir v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
Consumer goods conglomerate 3M agreed to pay over $6.5 million to settle charges it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act's internal controls provisions, the SEC announced Aug. 25. 3M's China-based subsidiary allegedly arranged for Chinese government employees of state-owned healthcare facilities to travel to international conferences, educational events and healthcare facility visits as part of the subsidiary's "marketing and outreach efforts."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Aug. 28 order allowed the Canadian government and eight Canadian exporters to file an amicus brief in a case on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test as part of its analysis to root out "masked" dumping. The Canadian government and companies asked for leave to file the brief earlier this month in the case in which the appellate court originally questioned the use of the test, arguing that Commerce is not using the statistical tool "in any coherent sense" (see 2308020027). The brief objected to the agency's defense of the test, which said that it can use the tool despite not satisfying base statistical assumptions since it is using the whole population of data instead of a sample (Stupp Corp. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1663).
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida was wrong to deny refrigerant importer BMP International's motion to compel arbitration in a case brought by Chinese company T.T. International Co. (TTI) for unpaid invoices, BMP argued in its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The district court had said that the motion for arbitration was waived by BMP, along with joint venture iGas USA, after the companies failed to raise the issue in an earlier case involving TTI and BMP (T.T. International Co. v. BMP International, 11th Cir. # 23-11978).
The Commerce Department's use of an adverse inference against exporter Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. for its supposed benefit from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program was "critically flawed," the Court of International Trade ruled on Aug. 25. Judge Timothy Stanceu, remanding the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on woven ribbon from China, said that Commerce based its use of adverse facts available on "missing" information from the Chinese government that the agency never actually requested. The judge added that submissions from the Chinese state, along with Yama itself, stand as enough to refute any finding that the exporter benefitted from the EBCP.
SpaceX illegally discriminated against asylees and refugees in its hiring practices by claiming it could only hire U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents under export control laws, DOJ alleged in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 24. Export control laws "impose no such hiring restrictions," the agency said, adding that the company violated the Immigration and Nationality Act in its hiring practices.
The Commerce Department revised its surrogate manufacturing overhead ratio and its surrogate hourly labor rate on remand at the Court of International Trade as part of a suit on the 2017-18 review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. Per the remand results, submitted on Aug. 24, Commerce raised the dumping rate for respondent Fusong Jinglong Wooden Group Co. from zero to 2.05%, while keeping the 0% rate for Jiangsu Guyu International Trading Co. The rate for the non-individually examined companies also rose to 2.05% (American Manufacturers of Multilayered Wood Flooring v. United States, CIT # 20-03948).