CBP recently ruled that imports of men's suits from an Italian parent company to its related U.S. importer didn't qualify for first sale treatment. In a ruling issued Jan. 4 and released March 7, the agency said that transactions between factory and parent company and between parent company and importer don't qualify as "sales" and that the transaction value between the importer and its U.S. customers should instead be used to value the merchandise. The ruling followed a request for internal advice from the CBP Validation and Compliance Division as to how to correctly appraise the suits.

During oral argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, three judges questioned the use of a particular statistical test, the Cohen's d test, that is used to identify "masked" dumping in antidumping proceedings. The inquiry built off a July 2021 Federal Circuit ruling that called the use of the test into question since the Commerce Department failed to fulfill certain statistical requirements before running the test (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-1747).

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A Canadian exporter's challenge of antidumping cash deposit instructions should be dismissed since the company can obtain a review of the cash deposit rate through an already initiated USMCA panel review, DOJ said in a March 4 brief. What the exporter, J.D. Irving, really wants is to not pay current cash deposits at the current rate, DOJ told the Court of International Trade. Even if the court finds it does have jurisdiction over the cash deposit instructions, the case still should be dismissed since the payment of cash deposits doesn't establish standing since it isn't an injury, DOJ said (J.D. Irving Ltd. v. United States, CIT #21-00641).

Japanese exporter Nagase & Co.'s antidumping duty case is an "excellent candidate for resolution via mediation," it told the Court of International Trade in a March 4 motion. Nagase's challenges the Commerce Department's calculation of its cost of production and an alleged error in the assessment rate in Commerce's liquidation instructions to CBP under the court's "residual" jurisdiction (Nagase & Co. v. United States, CIT #21-00574).

The Court of International Trade erred when it found that importer Strategic Import Supply's protests were untimely filed, the tire importer said in its March 4 opening argument at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In fact, SIS should not have had to file the protest in the first place, since the U.S. should have provided the necessary refunds for overpaid countervailing duties without any other filings from SIS, the company said. The result of the trade court's ruling is a practice both "nonsensical" and unsupported by the statute's language (Acquisition 362, LLC dba Strategic Import Supply v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1161).

The Court of International Trade failed to consider all the relevant statutory language, legislative history and facts when it ruled in three recent opinions that Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs can be deducted from a respondent's U.S. price in antidumping duty calculations, Nippon Steel told the trade court in a motion for judgment Feb. 25. Nippon argued the tariffs should be considered remedial, not ordinary customs duties eligible for deductions (Nippon Steel Corporation v. U.S., CIT #21-00533).

The U.S. charged American citizen John "Jack" Hanick with violating U.S. sanctions on Russia related to Russians promoting separatism in Crimea in 2014 via his work for sanctioned Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said. Hanick was arrested on Feb. 3 in London and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the sanctions charge and five years in prison for a false statements charge. The criminal indictment is the first stemming from the 2014 Russia sanctions regime.

A recent Court of International Trade opinion left prior court precedent on the question of what constitutes a substantial transformation "dead, or on life support," an analysis from Neville Peterson said. The result is that importers who have been told by CBP that the country of origin of their goods is the country of origin of the goods' major inputs or essential components will likely seek reconsideration of those rulings, seeking refunds on Section 301 China tariffs in particular, the firm said.

The Department of Justice announced March 2 that it is setting up an interagency task force to enforce the deluge of sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Russia following its assault on Ukraine. Called Task Force KleptoCapture, it will be run by the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.