The Court of International Trade in a May 19 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty case, finding that exporter Pirelli Tyre wasn't controlled by the Chinese state for the first 10 months of the AD review. Ten months into the review, Chinese company Chem China bought Pirelli, but Commerce originally held that Pirelli was owned by the Chinese government for the entire review. On remand, the agency said Chem China didn't own Pirelli for the first 10 months, giving the exporter a 1.45% dumping rate for this period.

The Commerce Department sufficiently backed its position that electricity subsidies in China were regionally specific, the Court of International Trade said in a May 19 opinion in a countervailing duty review challenge. Addressing the four other previously remanded elements of the review, Judge Jane Restani ultimately upheld Commerce's remand.

The Court of International Trade in a May 10 opinion made public May 17 sustained parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's remand results in the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on large power transformers from South Korea. In the opinion, Judge Mark Barnett remanded Commerce's use of adverse facts available over plaintiff Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems' (HEES's) reporting of certain parts as not being in the scope of the order. The judge also upheld the use of AFA relating to Hyundai's reporting of service-related revenue and the completeness of its U.S. sales database.

The Court of International Trade dismissed two cases brought by steel importer Voestalpine USA and steel purchaser Bilstein Cold Rolled Steel seeking to retroactively apply a Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion that was originally issued with a clerical error. Judge Mark Barnett said that the plaintiffs did not seek any relief that the court could grant since the entries eligible for the exclusion had already been liquidated, and the court does not have the power to order their reliquidation.

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The Court of International Trade should deny the U.S.'s stay motion in a case over an antidumping duty investigation since the stay risks harming Mexican exporter Building Systems de Mexico, the company argued in a May 16 reply brief. Seeing as the appeal would have the plaintiff wait until another case is ruled on at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, staying proceedings in the present case could risk the imposition of an antidumping duty order, requiring BSM's payment of cash deposits and participation in "costly" administrative reviews, the brief said (Building Systems de Mexico v. United States, CIT #20-00069).

A federal magistrate judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in an order unsealed May 13 that the U.S. had probable cause to believe that an unnamed American citizen violated U.S. sanctions by using cryptocurrency to help various parties evade restrictions. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui ruled that virtual currency is traceable and that sanctions apply to virtual currency (In Re: Criminal Complaint, D.D.C. #22-00067).

Shrimp exporters Minh Phu Seafood Joint Stock Co.'s and MSeafood Corp.'s surprise at the U.S. government's concession at oral argument that it did not review the entire record in an antidumping duty and countervailing duty evasion case does not stand as proper grounds for supplemental briefing, plaintiff Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee (AHSTEC) argued. Submitting a May 13 reply brief at the Court of International Trade, the U.S. producers group argued that the supplemental briefing motion represents a bid to revisit the arguments presented in the case and should be rejected as such.

Imported house wrap, used during construction to protect the properties from water infiltration, should be properly classified as “Woven fabrics of synthetic filament yarn...” under the duty-free heading 5407 rather than as "Textile fabrics impregnated, coated, covered or laminated with plastics" under heading 5903, CBP said in a March 8 ruling.

The Court of International Trade in a May 13 opinion sustained the Commerce Department's drop of facts available after the court made the agency give antidumping duty respondent Hyundai Steel Co. the chance to explain a discrepancy between the reporting of two data fields. The petitioner, U.S. Steel Corp., argued that the results should not be sustained given Hyundai's shifting narratives on the discrepancy. Judge Richard Eaton was not persuaded, however, arguing that since Hyundai gave Commerce the information it requested, the respondent replied to the best of its ability.