The Court of International Trade ruled Feb. 21 that exporter Nanjing Kaylang's phragmite cabinets fell under antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wood cabinets from China. CIT Judge Thomas Aquilino said the processing of phragmite was sufficiently similar to wood, and the term “engineered wood products” was ambiguous enough, for a Commerce Department scope ruling that reached the same result to be reasonable (Nanjing Kaylang Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00045).

The Court of International Trade in a pair of nearly-identical decisions sustained the Commerce Department's scope ruling that certain trailer wheels made by Asia Wheel Co. fall within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on steel trailer wheels from China. The wheels are made in Thailand using discs from China and rims made in Thailand. Judge Gary Katzmann held that Commerce didn't unlawfully expand the scope of the orders, since the agency said when it imposed the orders that wheels made of mixed-origin rims and discs could be subject to a scope ruling in the future. The judge also held that Commerce's finding that Asia Wheel's products weren't "substantially transformed" in Thailand was properly supported.

Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves again remanded the results of the Commerce Department's antidumping duty review of Chinese-origin multilayered wood flooring. Choe-Groves questioned whether the department’s decisions during the review were “results-driven or cherry-picking” because the department, instead of reopening the record to correct erroneous surrogate value information, still insisted on simply removing a month of bad data -- resulting in a surrogate value inflation of 453% (Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00190).

The Court of International Trade on Feb. 18 sustained the Commerce Department's second remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on mattresses from Indonesia. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves upheld the agency's exclusion of in-transit mattresses from Indonesia in calculating constructed export price. The judge also upheld the agency's exclusion of respondent PT. Zinus Global Indonesia's parent company's selling expenses from the calculation of normal value (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00277).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 11 sustained the Commerce Department's decision to reject exporter Pirelli Tyre Co.'s bid for a separate antidumping rate in the third review of the AD order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. Judges Sharon Prost, Richard Taranto and Raymond Chen said that Commerce's third factor for assessing whether the foreign government has de facto control over the separate rate respondent, which addresses the selection of management, doesn't require a link to export activities. The judges also said Commerce properly requires the applicant to "carry a burden of persuasion to justify a separate rate."

The Court of International Trade on Feb. 7 sustained the Commerce Department's use of San Shing Fastech Corp.'s financial statements to calculate the constructed value profit and indirect selling expenses for respondent Your Standing International in an antidumping duty review on steel nails from Taiwan. Judge Claire Kelly said Commerce reasonably supported its selection after considering that San Shing made comparable merchandise, had contemporaneous financial statements and made over 70% of its sales to markets outside the U.S. The judge also said that Your Standing failed to exhaust its administrative remedies when arguing that the respondent and San Shing lacked a similar customer base.

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 28 sustained the Commerce Department's second remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on wind towers from Spain, in which the agency gave the collapsed entity of Siemens Gamesa and Windar a 28.55% AD rate. Judge Timothy Stanceu said Commerce reasonably found holding company Siemens Gamesa to be a "producer or exporter" and appropriately decided to collapse Siemens Gamesa, Windar and five of Windar's subsidiaries. The judge also upheld the agency's calculation of the collapsed entity's constructed export price.

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Jan. 29 sustained in part and remanded in part the expedited countervailing duty investigation of softwood lumber products from Canada. Judge Mark Barnett sent back the Commerce Department's subsidy calculation for affiliated exporters Les Produits Forestiers D&G and Les Produits Forestiers Portbec, which the agency used to account for the differences in volumes of lumber the two companies bought from unaffiliated producers. Barnett then upheld Commerce's use of exporter Fontaine's FY 2015 tax returns to calculate the amount of the tax benefits received by the company -- a move no party contested.

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 25 sustained the Commerce Department's decision to cut the antidumping duty rate for exporter Apiario Diamante Comercial Exportadora, known as Supermel, from 83.72% to 10.52% in the AD investigation on raw honey from Brazil. Judge Timothy Stanceu rejected a host of claims against the move from the petitioners, finding that Commerce adequately surveyed the record and said total adverse facts available wasn't warranted due to the reliability of Supermel's data. The petitioners failed to "perfect" their claims alleging deficiencies in the respondent's submissions, since "they make no attempt to show" how the deficiencies "affected the Department's margin calculation," the court said.

The Court of International Trade ordered Jan. 27 the remand of a circumvention inquiry in which an exporter, Hoa Phat Steel Pipe, failed to meet a deadline but still submitted all requested information before the opening of the first business day following that deadline. CIT Judge Timothy Reif found the Commerce Department’s rejection of that information, and subsequent assignment of adverse facts available to the exporter, was an abuse of discretion, specifically noting that Commerce itself had twice extended the deadline for its own determination (Hoa Phat Steel Pipe Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00248).