The Court of International Trade stayed a tariff classification case over printed circuit board assemblies used in audio-visual transmission equipment, in a July 6 order, pending the Justice Department's consideration of a settlement offer from importer Plexus Corp. CIT recently sent the case to trial after it found that it couldn't determine whether PCBAs imported by Plexus are principally used for televisions and dutiable at 2.9% or principally used for other devices, including computers and smartphones, and duty free (see 2012230084).

Kazakhstan's Ministry of Trade and Integration wanted to intervene in a countervailing duty case on silicon metal from Kazakhstan in the Court of International Trade in June. It was denied for failing to comply with CIT Rule 24 -- the rules governing intervention. In particular, the defendant-intervenors and petitioners in the underlying CVD case, Globe Specialty Metals and Mississippi Silicon, said the trade ministry failed to state the issues it wanted to litigate (see 2106110029). Now, the ministry is back in CIT, filing a "renewed motion to intervene as plaintiff-intervenor" on June 16 (Tau-Ken Temir LLP et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00173).

By subjecting aluminum extrusion importer Global Aluminum Distributor to two antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations for the same conduct and entries, CBP violated Global Aluminum's rights to due process, the importer said. Filing a July 2 complaint in the Court of International Trade, Global Aluminum called out the customs agency for breaking "long-standing principles of fundamental fairness" by including the importer in multiple evasion investigations under the Enforce and Protect Act -- a process already riddled with due process violations, according to the complaint (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00312).

The Commerce Department acted in conflict with its established practice by finding that window wall system kits are outside the scope of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China, the Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee said in a June 25 complaint. In the scope ruling, Commerce held that Reflection Window + Wall's window wall system kits qualify for the "finished goods kits" exclusion of the orders. This determination is not accurate, the coalition said, since the window wall system kits are not assembled as is into a finished product and are instead "generally assembled, attached, and sealed in the field and can interlock and cover large portions of the exterior of a building" (Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee v. United States, CIT #21-00253).

Tools of the trade returned after temporary use abroad do not have to been actually used to be eligible for duty-free treatment under subheading 9801.00.85 Porsche Motorsports North America, said in a reply brief filed June 25. CBP has ruled in the past that it’s enough for goods to be made available for use to qualify for duty-free treatment, PMNA said in the brief, filed in support of its motion for judgment in a case at the Court of International Trade (Porsche Motorsports North America, Inc. v. U.S., CIT # 16-00182).

The Commerce Department's decision to assume 24 working days per month for calculating surrogate labor rates, instead of 21 days, in an antidumping administrative review is unsupported, the Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood said in a June 24 motion for judgment in the Court of International Trade. The coalition said the agency failed to properly explain its switch to 24 working days after originally relying on 21 days in its preliminary determination (Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood v. United States, CIT #20-03930).

Steel nail importer Hilti, Inc. filed a consent motion to stay proceedings on June 30 in its Court of International Trade case challenging the legality of the expansion of the Section 232 tariffs to cover steel and aluminum “derivatives” pending a key U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion on the same topic. CIT recently halted liquidation of Hilti's entries pending the resolution of the case (see 2106300032). Hilti wants to pause the case until the Federal Circuit reaches an opinion in PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S. CIT previously held in the PrimeSource case that the Section 232 tariff expansion onto derivative products violated statutory time limits. Counsel for Hilti conferred with Ann Motto of the Justice Department, who consented to the stay (Hilti, Inc., v. U.S. et al., CIT # 21-00216).

The Commerce Department continued to use Malaysia as its primary surrogate country in an antidumping administrative review after the Court of International Trade told the agency to further explain the departure from using Romania, Commerce said in June 30 remand results. The agency did, however, grant that Romania classifies as a "significant producer" of activated carbon, the subject merchandise, a departure from its final results. The agency also switched to using Malaysian surrogate values for a key input in activated carbon for most of the mandatory respondents' suppliers.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Steel nails imported after 12:01 a.m. Feb. 8, 2020 by Hilti that remain unliquidated will remain unliquidated, per a June 30 order from the Court of International Trade. Hilti filed the consent motion to enjoin the liquidation June 29, claiming that it's likely to succeed on the merits of the case. Hilti argued that because the court ruled that the expansion of Section 232 tariffs to cover steel and aluminum “derivatives” violated statutory time limits in PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S., it should succeed in its case since it shares the “same cause of action” as PrimeSource (see 2106290041). The entries will remain liquidated until the “final resolution of the merits of this case, including through any appellate process” (Hilti, Inc., v. U.S. et al., CIT # 21-00216).