The Court of International Trade in a pair of decisions sustained the Commerce Department's 33rd and 34th reviews of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Stephen Vaden upheld Commerce's decision on remand to use neutral facts available against respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. in the 33rd review and the agency's use of adverse facts available against the same company in the 34th review. In the 33rd review, Commerce used neutral facts available after declaring that it can't conclude that the exporter has enough control over its suppliers to induce their cooperation. In the 34th review, the agency said Tainai was aware of its suppliers' prior non-cooperation, yet failed to undertake best efforts to induce their cooperation.

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Dec. 17 sustained in part and remanded in part the Commerce Department's 2021 review of the countervailing duty order on cut-to-length carbon-quality steel plate from South Korea. Judge Claire Kelly sent back Commerce's finding of de facto specificity regarding the Korean government's alleged provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration, holding that the agency failed to give an explanation for its finding that the benefit received by a "group of entities and industries it identifies is disproportionate." However, the judge upheld Commerce's refusal to accept the 2021 cost information from the state electricity company, KEPCO, as being untimely filed.

Court of International Trade Judge Thomas Aquilino upheld the Commerce Department’s redetermination on remand that set at 26.05% the antidumping rate for exporter LG Chem’s superabsorbent polymers. On remand, the department switched back to a model match methodology it had used for the review’s preliminary redetermination, saying not enough evidence on the record supported the one used in its final determination (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Dec. 13 remanded the Commerce Department's rejection of 31 of importer California Steel Industries' Section 232 exclusion requests. Judge M. Miller Baker found that Commerce failed to consider whether objector U.S. Steel Corp. could supply the entire amount of slab represented across all 31 exclusions as opposed to just the slab covered by one exclusion request. However, Baker sustained Commerce's rejection of another 14 exclusion requests from California Steel, finding that the agency reasonably found U.S. Steel could timely provide slab to the importer in a sufficient quantity.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 remanded the Commerce Department's decision to include importer Hardware Resources' edge-glued boards in the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wood mouldings and millwork products from China. In his first decision since joining the court, Judge Joseph Laroski held that Commerce failed to consider whether Hardware Resources' products were, in fact, mouldings or millwork products under the orders' plain language.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 remanded the Commerce Department’s classification of xanthan gum exporter Fufeng’s coal and its direct calculation of the exporter’s energy costs. Judge Gary Katzmann dismissed the exporter’s challenge to the Cohen’s d test and to the department’s decision to subtract Section 301 tariffs from the Fufeng’s value calculation (Neimenggu Fufeng Biotechnologies Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00068).

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded to the Court of International Trade for the second time a case on Meyer Corp.'s use of first sale. The ruling, issued Dec. 13, orders the CIT to once again consider whether CBP was wrong to reject the first-sale price submitted to the agency by Meyer, based on the price paid by distributors in Macau to a Thai manufacturer and by distributors in Hong Kong to a Chinese manufacturer. The manufacturers, distributors and importers share the same parent company -- Meyer International Holdings, Ltd.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 12 remanded CBP's finding that importer Fedmet Resources Corp. evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on magnesia carbon bricks from China. Judge M. Miller Baker held that the Commerce Department, in a scope referral, erred in relying on its test finding goods to be covered by the orders if they are at least 5% made with alumina, since a court previously found the orders to not cover magnesia carbon bricks made with any added alumina. Baker said it's unclear if Commerce would have reached the same conclusion if it used the "benchmark of any added alumina."

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Dec. 10 sustained the Commerce Department's calculation of industry support in deciding to open the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on oil country tubular goods from Argentina, Mexico, South Korea and Russia. After remanding the issue for Commerce to address potential double counting in its calculation, Judge Claire Kelly said the agency sufficiently addressed contrary evidence in finding there to be enough domestic support to launch the proceedings. The judge also said importers led by Tenaris Bay City failed to administratively exhaust more specific claims regarding potential undercounting and commingling of the producers and processors in the industry support data used by Commerce.

The Commerce Department published its final rule updating various antidumping and countervailing duty procedures, most notably changing its nonmarket economy policy to allow for the use of a country-wide NME rate on entities in third countries that are "owned or controlled" by the nonmarket economy. The final rule revises multiple proposed changes the agency released in July, most of which codify the agency's existing practices surrounding the collection of cash deposits, calculation of an all-others' rate, respondent selection and attribution of subsides received by cross-owned input producers to countervailing duty respondents. The rule takes effect Jan. 15.