Antidumping duty petitioner The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile challenged the Commerce Department's AD investigation on ceramic tile from India, arguing that the agency erred in its collapsing and affiliation analyses regarding the two mandatory respondents. The result of the investigation was a zero percent margin for the respondents, Antiqa Minerals and Win-Tel Ceramics (The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile v. United States, CIT # 25-00095).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit last week ordered that two cases on tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act shall be heard on an expedited basis (State of California v. Donald J. Trump, 9th Cir. # 25-3493) (Susan Webber v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 9th. Cir. # 25-2717).
Counsel for the importer plaintiffs in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has no plans to preemptively petition the Supreme Court to review the case in light of plaintiffs in a separate IEEPA tariffs suit doing so. Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center and counsel for the CAFC IEEPA plaintiffs, told us that he has "no plans to file a petition with the Supreme Court prior to a decision by the Federal Circuit," though he said "circumstances could change that."
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act lets the president suspend the de minimis threshold to respond to a national emergency notwithstanding Section 321's limits on eliminating or modifying the threshold, the U.S. argued. Urging the Court of International Trade to side with the government in importer Detroit Axle's suit against the elimination of the de minimis threshold on Chinese goods, the U.S. said the IEEPA's language lets the president void pre-existing privileges granted by other authorities, such as Section 321 (Axle of Dearborn, d/b/a Detroit Axle v. Dep't of Commerce, CIT # 25-00091).
Timor-Leste on June 18 kicked off negotiations with World Trade Organization members to allow the country to join the Government Procurement Agreement 2012, the WTO announced. Timor-Leste joined the WTO less than a year ago and is the first least developed country to open accession talks to the procurement deal. Timor-Leste committed to submitting an "initial market access offer" in its procurement agreement accession talks in August. In addition to discussing Timor-Leste, members of the Committee on Government Procurement celebrated the launch of the e-GPA Notification System, which will facilitate signatories' compliance with their transparency obligations under the agreement, the WTO said.
The European Commission on June 19 decided to exclude Chinese companies from EU government purchases of medical devices exceeding $5.7 million following the first investigation under the EU's International Procurement Instrument. The decision allows no more than 50% of Chinese inputs for successful bids, the commission said. The EU said it will add exceptions "where no alternative suppliers exist."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on June 18 declined to tie the briefing schedule in the appeal on the legality of the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to the briefing schedule in a similar appeal before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. As a result, briefing will conclude first at the Federal Circuit, with CAFC set to hear oral argument on July 31 (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, D.C. Cir. # 25-5202).
The Court of International Trade on June 20 upheld the International Trade Commission's affirmative injury determination on oil country tubular goods from Argentina, Mexico, Russia and South Korea. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves reviewed and sustained the ITC's decision to cumulate the imports from the four countries and its determination regarding the imports' "volume, price effects, and impact."
The Supreme Court on June 20 denied a motion from importers Learning Resources and Hand2Mind to expedite consideration of their petition to have the high court take up their lawsuit against tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Learning Resources v. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
The European Commission on June 17 referred Portugal to the Court of Justice for failing to "fully transpose into national law" the EU directive "laying down the general arrangements for" excise duties on alcohol and alcoholic beverages. All EU member states were required to fully transpose the EU directive regarding the excise duties, yet Portugal has yet to do so, the commission said. The regulation "sets up an EU-wide certification system for small alcohol producers to facilitate their access to lower excise duty rates across the Union" and combats fraud by "clarifying the conditions for the application of the exemptions for alcohol not intended for human consumption." The commission said this "transposition gap" affects the "cross-border trade of alcohol" made by small producers of wine to other member states and of the alcohol not meant for human consumption.