The Commerce Department under protest on Oct. 10 reversed its finding that exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. and one of its customers, BNK Steel Co., are affiliated, on remand at the Court of International Trade. The decision lowered Saha Thai's antidumping duty rate in the 2020-21 review of the AD order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand, from 14.74% to 1.65% (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. v. United States, CIT # 21-00627).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 10 sent back the Commerce Department's use of partial adverse facts available against exporter Nippon Steel for its failure to submit sales data from some of its U.S. affiliates in the third review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan. Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce failed to grapple with Nippon Steel's limitations under Japanese law to collect this data from its affiliates.
Exporter Can Tho Import Export Seafood Joint Stock Co. dismissed its appeal of the Commerce Department's 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. The company brought the suit to contest Commerce's denial of the exporter's byproduct offsets for "fresh broken meat" and "fresh fish waste by-products" (see 2405140061). Can Tho also claimed that Commerce illegally liquidated some of its entries at the "punitive" Vietnam-wide rate instead of its own rate (Can Tho Import Export Seafood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00080).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 9 denied importer Retractable Technologies' motion to quash a prehearing deposition subpoena from the U.S. in the company's suit against the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 100% Section 301 rate hike on needles and syringes (Retractable Technologies v. U.S., CIT # 24-00185).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 10 denied German paper exporter Koehler Oberkirch GmbH's bid to immediately appeal a prior decision from the court allowing service to be effected on the company's U.S. counsel. Judge Gary Katzmann said that an interlocutory appeal wouldn't "materially advance" and would actually delay the "ultimate termination of the litigation."
Ecuador formally accepted the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies Oct. 9, bringing the number of countries that have accepted the deal to 84. The WTO needs 27 more acceptances to reach the two-thirds membership threshold for the agreement to take effect.
A dual U.S. and Iranian citizen on Oct. 7 was arrested for allegedly violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by sending digital and physical gift cards loaded with U.S. dollars to Iran, DOJ announced. Kambiz Eghbali, a Los Angeles resident, was charged alongside Iranian nationals Hamid Hajipour and Babak Bahizad for the scheme, which also included charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and commit money laundering.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Sept. 30 granted exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co.'s application for more time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari in an antidumping duty scope case. The high court sent the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit a letter notifying the court of the extension on Oct. 7 (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2181).
Importer Retractable Technologies on Oct. 8 asked the Court of International Trade to quash the government's motion seeking corporate testimony from the company in Retractable's suit on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 100% Section 301 tariff hike on needles and syringes. Retractable said an upcoming evidentiary hearing before the trade court will give the government the information it seeks and that reasonable time wasn't allowed for the company to respond to the subpoena (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).
Importer UniChem on Oct. 8 opposed the government's bid for leave to add correspondence between CBP and the DEA to the record of a case on seized weight loss dietary supplements, after the U.S. was confronted about its previous failure to add such communications to the record during oral argument at the Court of International Trade. The government is also seeking to respond to UniChem's claims regarding whether the court has jurisdiction now that CBP has allegedly seized the goods (UniChem Enterprises v. United States, CIT # 24-00033).