CBP improperly classified certain toy lips as candy under Harmonized Tariff Schedule Chapter 17 instead of "other toys" under Chapter 95, said importer Imaginings, doing business as Flix Candy, in a complaint last week at the Court of International Trade. Flix said that while the lips consist of two components, the plastic lips and a candy lollipop, the lips give the item its "essential character" and thus qualify the goods for Chapter 95 classification (Imaginings 3, d/b/a Flix Candy v. United States, CIT # 21-00403).
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 26 vacated the National Marine Fisheries Service's comparability findings on New Zealand's West Coast North Island multispecies set-net and trawl fisheries, though the court declined to compel NMFS to issue an import ban on fish and fish products from these fisheries under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
A dispute panel at the World Trade Organization on Aug. 22 found that the European Commission violated its WTO commitments in imposing countervailing duties on biodiesel from Indonesia. The panel found that the commission erred in finding that the Indonesian government provides a countervailable subsidy to biodiesel producers via the provision of crude palm oil and in concluding that Indonesian biodiesel imports "cause a threat of material injury to EU biodiesel producers."
China requested dispute consultations at the World Trade Organization regarding Canada's tariff rate quotas on certain steel goods from non-free trade agreement partners, including China, and Canada's surtax on certain steel and aluminum goods that contain China-origin steel or aluminum.
The International Trade Commission erred in finding that the U.S. industry wasn't materially injured by solar cell imports from Thailand and Cambodia, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee argued in an Aug. 22 complaint at the Court of International Trade (American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee v. United States, CIT # 25-00163).
The Commerce Department on remand at the Court of International Trade deselected exporter Shandong Linglong Tyre as a mandatory respondent in the 2016-17 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. The agency then granted Linglong separate rate status in the review, assigning the company a 41.36% AD rate (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00069).
Importer Allied Stone agreed to pay $12.4 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act by evading antidumping duties and countervailing duties on quartz surface products from China, DOJ announced. The FCA case was initially filed by Melinda Hemphill, a whistleblower in the case, who will receive a $2,170,875 cut of the settlement.
The Commerce Department's failure to investigate and attribute subsidies received by respondent Antiqa Minerals' cross-owned affiliates and their suppliers in a countervailing duty investigation was unlawful, petitioner The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile argued in an Aug. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Challenging the CVD investigation on ceramic tile from India, the coalition said Commerce's cross-ownership analysis of Antiqa was unsupported by substantial evidence (The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ceramic Tile v. United States, CIT # 25-00152).
Four importers recently dismissed their cases at the Court of International Trade regarding President Donald Trump's decision from his first administration to revoke a Section 201 tariff exclusion for bifacial solar panels. The importers are Shining Solutions, Light & Hope Energy, JinkoSolar (U.S.) and Longi Solar Technology (U.S.) (Shining Solutions v. U.S., CIT # 22-00301) (Light & Hope Energy v. U.S., CIT # 22-00303) (JinkoSolar (U.S.) v. U.S., CIT # 22-00241) (Longi Solar Technology (U.S.) v. U.S., CIT # 22-00212).
The Commerce Department properly relied on Maersk data as the surrogate value for ocean freight and found that certain fabricated steel components used by respondent Zhejiang Dingli Machinery shouldn't be valued using data under Harmonized System subheadings covering "primary or raw steel products," petitioner Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment argued. Submitting remand comments to the Court of International Trade on Aug. 11, the coalition urged the court to accept the agency's remand results in the antidumping duty investigation on mobile access equipment from China (Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment v. United States, CIT Consol. # 22-00152).