The Commerce Department failed to properly consider the "extremely disproportionate and prejudicial result" that stemmed from its decision to reject an untimely filing in an antidumping sunset review that led to the revocation of the order, three U.S. chemical companies argued in a May 31 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Commerce's "exceedingly narrow view" of what qualifies as an "extraordinary circumstance" isn't supported by the statute, evidence or the agency's own prior practice, given that Commerce said the U.S. companies' counsel's medical issues didn't qualify as such a circumstance, the brief said (Trinity Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1329).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department wrongly granted a price adjustment used in two antidumping duty respondents' margins for differences in levels of trade (LOT) between the U.S. constructed export price (CEP) sales and sales made in the home market of South Korea, AD petitioner Wheatland Tube argued in a May 27 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Wheatland Tube v. United States, CIT #22-00160).
The Court of International Trade in a May 19 opinion made public May 27 again rejected the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available over the subsidy rate for China's Export Buyer's Credit Program in a countervailing duty investigation. Judge Richard Eaton ruled that Commerce did not support its position that certain information was necessary to verify that CVD respondent Zhejiang Junyue Standard Part Co.'s U.S. customers used the program. The judge also ruled that the agency did not adequately explain its decision to triple the subsidy rate over the EBCP to account for Junyue and two of its affiliates.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected South Korean steel exporter SeAH Steel Corp.'s bid for a panel rehearing on the appellate court's ruling that found that the Commerce Department's practice of capping freight revenue when calculating U.S. price was reasonable (Nexteel Co., Ltd. v. United States, CAFC # 21-1334).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping case and a countervailing duty case both brought by exporter Celik Halat after the agency accepted submissions made just minutes late. Judge Timothy Stanceu upheld the agency's remand findings after Commerce accepted the submissions it initially rejected for being late -- a move dubbed a "draconian penalty" by Stanceu.
The Court of International Trade in a May 26 order denied the U.S.'s stay bid in an antidumping case, citing harm to plaintiff and exporter Building Systems de Mexico (BSM) that could result from the stay. Judge Claire Kelly ruled that "a stay is not appropriate in this case," given that BSM has already successfully challenged four bases for the Commerce Department's finding of dumping and a stay "would significantly devalue" the company's investment in the challenge.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Plaintiffs in an antidumping duty case led by Ellwood City Forge failed to challenge the legality of the questionnaire in lieu of on-site verification due to COVID-19 travel restrictions until the case reached the Court of International Trade, highlighting their failure to exhaust administrative remedies, exporter Bharat Forge argued. In a reply brief filed May 20, the exporter said the issue was "ripe for consideration" during the AD case, "yet Plaintiffs inexplicably did not raise" it (Ellwood City Forge Company v. U.S., CIT Consol. #21-00007).
Anti-circumvention petitioners need to walk a fine line between being inclusive in their definition of the scope of the goods to cover all goods potentially guilty of circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties, and not causing "mischief" at the International Trade Commission by making the scope too broad, said Mary Jane Alves, partner at Cassidy Levy. Speaking during a panel at the Georgetown International Trade Update about the interplay between the Commerce Department and the ITC, Alves, speaking on her own behalf and not for her firm or clients, said that petitions seeking to cover products that are further assembled, blended or processed in the U.S. under anti-circumvention cases can risk having the ITC deem those assemblers, blenders or processors part of the domestic industry.