The Court of International Trade on Dec. 21 upheld the Commerce Department's pick of Brazil as the main surrogate country in an antidumping duty investigation on wood moldings and millwork from China. After clarifying the controlling question of the case is whether a "reasonable mind" could conclude that Commerce chose the best available information, Judge Gary Katzmann sustained the agency's pick of Brazil over Malaysia.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion sent back a Commerce Department scope ruling that importer Valeo North America's heat-treated T-series aluminum sheet is covered by the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on common alloy aluminum sheet from China. Judge Mark Barnett took issue with Commerce's interpretation of the phrase "3XXX-series" in the scope to include certain unregistered alloys under the order. The judge also remanded the case for Commerce to address evidence that Valeo's product undergoes heat-treatment.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 22 opinion granted plaintiff Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee's motion for a preliminary injunction in an Enforce and Protect Act case. Judge Richard Eaton ruled that the industry group sufficiently proved that it will be "immediately and irreparably" harmed without the injunction barring liquidation of importer Kingtom Aluminio's aluminum extrusions until the litigation has ended. The judge also ruled that "it cannot be said at this time that Plaintiff does not have a 'fair chance' of success on the merits" given CBP has asked for voluntary remand or reversed itself in several cases with the same merchandise and parties.
Cannabis and cannabis accessory importers now have a "strong legal argument with potentially broad applications to challenge CBP's seizures" of marijuana paraphernalia in light of two recent Court of International Trade decisions, Harris Bricken lawyer Adams Lee said in a Dec. 16 blog post. Both cases involved the question of whether an importer could enter marijuana-related drug paraphernalia into Washington state, given that marijuana was made legal at the state level but remained illegal federally. Lee said that given how the opinions were structured, a state law repealing a past prohibition on such products "could be enough of an 'authorization' by the state law to block the federal prohibition on importing drug paraphernalia."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade in a confidential Dec. 20 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from China. In the remand results, Commerce dropped its use of partial adverse facts available over unreported factors of production data, reverting to neutral facts available, and changed how it values silver paste using Malaysian surrogate data (see 2207070047). However, the agency stuck by positions previously sent back by the trade court on how to value backsheets and ethyl vinyl acetate using surrogate data. In a letter to the litigants, Judge Claire Kelly said she wishes to issue a public version of the opinion on "or shortly after" Jan. 4 (Risen Energy Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-03743).
CBP has no authority to pay interest when refunding money voluntarily tendered with prior disclosures, DOJ argued in a Dec. 15 motion at the Court of International Trade. The government's motion was in response to phone case importer Otter Products' Sept. 12 motion for judgment, in which the company argued that 19 U.S.C. 1520(a)(3) "unambiguously authorizes" the treasury department to refund duties or other receipts whenever money is deposited in the Treasury (see 2209130029) (Otter Products v. United States, CIT #22-00033).
The Commerce Department illegally hit antidumping respondent Unicatch Industrial Co. with adverse facts available over the fact that the company did not submit a complete cost reconciliation, Unicatch and other appellants argued in a Dec. 19 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Unicatch, along with TC International, Hor Liang Industrial Corp. and Romp Coil Nails Industries, argued that all the data needed to complete the cost reconciliation was on the record, meaning the respondent "could have easily completed the reconciliation in a manner required if it had realized that Commerce was not satisfied with its response" (Pro-Team Coil Nail Enterprise v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2241).
Court of International Trade Judge Claire Kelly sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a case concerning the antidumping duty investigation on fabricated structural steel from Mexico, in a Dec. 13 decision. Kelly found Commerce's changes and explanations reasonable and based on substantial evidence in accordance with law that complied with the court’s March remand order (see 2203310028).
The Commerce Department cannot set the all-others rate in an antidumping duty review by taking a simple average of a de minimis and an adverse facts available rate, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Dec. 21 opinion. Sending the case back to Commerce for the fifth time, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves cited a key U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that made the same determination. The judge said that the court's rules "require the just and speedy determination of every action and proceeding," so the agency should refrain from "submitting the same unreasonable-as-applied, punitive all-others separate rate."