The Commerce Department has to reconsider two scope rulings that found that certain flanges are subject to the antidumping duty order on cast iron pipe fittings from China. In two decisions, the Court of International Trade said that Commerce either misinterpreted evidence or failed to consider all the relevant evidence when deciding that flanges from MCC Holdings, doing business as Crane Resistoflex, and Star Pipe Products are subject to the antidumping duty order.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Aug. 26 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 26 dismissed a steel importer's and purchaser's bid to reliquidate two entries subject to Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs, saying the plaintiffs had already received the relief available to them from the Commerce Department in the form of a product exclusion but failed to preserve their ability to receive a refund by way of an extension of liquidation or a protest.
CBP's enforcement of forced labor-related withhold release orders is marred by due process violations, an unreasonable standard of evidence, absence of transparency and arbitrary decisions, the American Apparel and Footwear Association said in an Aug. 26 proposed amicus brief filed at the Court of International Trade. Seeking to file the brief in a challenge over CBP's exclusion of Virtus Nutrition's palm oil imports from entry to the U.S. over forced labor allegations, the association's brief more broadly criticizes CBP's forced labor policies (Virtus Nutrition, LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00165).
The Commerce Department can’t deny a Dominican aluminum extrusions exporter’s scope ruling request on the basis that CBP has already ruled on the merchandise in an Enforce and Protect Act evasion investigation, the exporter, Kingtom Aluminum, said in a letter filed with Commerce in early August.
Steel importer Transpacific Steel, along with several Turkish steel makers, wants a full court rehearing at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of a panel decision to uphold President Donald Trump's Section 232 tariff hike on Turkish steel. In an Aug. 23 petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc, Transpacific argued that the panel's majority failed to impose the congressionally mandated limitations to the president's power in Section 232. Further, the majority improperly rejected the plaintiff appellees' equal protection claims, the petition said (Transpacific Steel LLC, et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #20-2157).
Plaintiff Nucor Corporation mischaracterized, oversimplified and took the Commerce Department's remand results out of context in its comments on a submission in a case stemming from the agency's countervailing duty investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, the Department of Justice said in Aug. 18 comments at the Court of International Trade, backing the remand redetermination. DOJ continued to back Commerce's contention that the South Korean government did not provide a countervailable subsidy to producers of hot-rolled steel through cheap electricity. Contrary to what Nucor's comments assert, Commerce adhered to the statute when completing its less-than-adequate remuneration analysis in the CVD case and properly accounted for the Korean Power Exchange's role in the electricity market, DOJ said (POSCO, et al. v. U.S., CIT #16-00227).
A penalty action against the owner and director of importer Atria, Kevin Ho, should not be dismissed even though the U.S. served his counsel with the wrong summons and complaint, the Department of Justice said in an Aug. 17 reply brief. Rather, the court should grant the DOJ's motion to expand Ho's time of service, allow Ho to stipulate to his liability in line with his guilty plea in a related criminal case, grant DOJ's motion to consolidate the two actions against Ho and stay the consolidated matter until Ho serves his prison sentence, the brief said (United States v. Chu-Chiang "Kevin" Ho, et al., CIT #19-00038).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP “NY” rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
CBP deprived Norca Industrial Company of its due process rights and engaged in "unlawful speculation" when finding that Norca evaded antidumping duties, the company said in its motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Another in a long line of importers to challenge the constitutionality of the Enforce and Protect Act process, Norca argued that CBP failed to grant it proper access to the record evidence during the investigation and based its determination on allegations of document discrepancies that the agency never gave the importer a chance to explain (Norca Industrial Company, LLC et al. v. U.S., CIT #21-00192).