The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 27 sustained CBP's finding that importers Glob Energy Corp., Ascension Chemicals, UMD Solutions and Crude Chem Technology evaded the antidumping duty order on xanthan gum from China. Judges Kimberly Moore, Todd Hughes and Tiffany Cunningham rejected the importers' claim that CBP was required to refer the case to the Commerce Department to see if petitioner CP Kelco was still injured by oilfield xanthan gum imports, based on evidence purportedly showing the company no longer made oilfield xanthan gum. The judges also said CBP properly used adverse inferences against the claimed manufacturers of the merchandise. Lastly, the court said the Court of International Trade erred in finding it didn't have jurisdiction over entries erroneously liquidated by CBP, but the error was harmless given that the evasion finding was properly supported.

The Court of International Trade on Feb. 25 sustained the Commerce Department's inclusion of importer Precision Components' low-carbon steel blanks within the scope of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Joseph Laroski said Commerce reasonably determined that the products were already found to be in-scope merchandise in a 2020 scope ruling involving products from Precision. In its second scope ruling request, Precision said its products were "moved within the scope in" the previous scope ruling. The court said it was "more than reasonable for Commerce to rely upon Precision's own statements."

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.

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 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).

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 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 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. 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.