The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion denied U.S. Steel Corp.'s motion to intervene in a case brought by Seneca Foods Corp. on the Commerce Department's denial of Section 232 exclusion requests. The trade court cited the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in California Steel Industries v. U.S., in which the appellate court denied U.S. Steel the right to intervene in a different Section 232 exclusion denial challenge. Judge Gary Katzmann ruled that this precedent establishes that the steel maker doesn't have the right to intervene under the trade court's rules.
The Commerce Department on Dec. 19 filed a pair of remand redeterminations at the Court of International Trade that exclude ductile iron flanges imported by MCC Holdings, doing business as Crane Resistoflex, and Star Pipe Products from the antidumping duty order on cast iron pipe fittings from China. The trade court previously said the remand results were not issued in a form that the court could sustain. On remand, the agency clarified that it doesn't intend to issue a scope ruling after the court's review of the case, declaring that if the court affirms the remand, a Federal Register notice will be released stating that Crane's and Star Pipe's flanges are outside the scope of the order (MCC Holdings dba Crane Resistoflex v. U.S., CIT # 18-00248) (Star Pipe Products v. United States, CIT # 17-00236).
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The Court of International Trade should dismiss a case from importer Southern Cross Seafood involving the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) for lack of jurisdiction, the U.S. argued in a Dec. 19 motion. Measures involving the CCAMLR belong exclusively at district courts and the statute "could not be more clear," the brief said. The case challenges the National Marine Fisheries Service's decision to deny Southern Cross' application for preapproval to import Chilean sea bass (Southern Cross Seafoods v. United States, CIT # 22-00299).
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 20 opinion denied an injunction bid pending appeal from certain plaintiffs in an attorney conflict-of interest suit. After recently rejecting the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, Judge Gary Katzmann this time rejected the injunction motion pending appeal since the appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit "has not yet been noticed," but even if it had, the injunction "is unwarranted." Katzmann said that the plaintiffs fail to both show a "strong showing of success on the merits" and prove that they will suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion denied U.S. Steel's motion to intervene in a case brought by Seneca Foods over the Commerce Department's denial of Section 232 exclusion requests. The trade court cited the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in California Steel Industries v. U.S. in which the appellate court denied U.S. Steel the right to intervene in a different Section 232 exclusion denial challenge. Judge Gary Katzmann ruled that the precedent establishes that the steelmaker does have the right to intervene under the trade court's rules.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's fourth remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation of hardwood plywood from China. For the fifth time, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sent back Commerce's calculation of the all-others rate, which the agency determined by averaging a de minimis and an adverse facts available rate. The judge said "Commerce created its own problem" by selecting only two respondents, resulting in "sparse information" to back its assertions.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department on Dec. 16 filed its remand redetermination in a Court of International Trade case stemming from its countervailing duty investigation on phosphate fertilizers from Russia (The Mosaic Company v. U.S., CIT #21-00117). Commerce reconsidered its calculation of the total sales for EuroChem, its calculation of the natural gas benchmark, and its analysis of mining rights for less than adequate remuneration. Commerce revised its subsidy rate calculations for EuroChem from 47.05% to 23.77%, for PhosAgro from 9.19% to 14.3%, and the "all others" rate from 17.2% to 16.3%.
The Court of International Trade in a pair of Dec. 16 opinions upheld the Commerce Department's decisions on remand to exclude importers Worldwide Door Components' and Columbia Aluminum Products' door thresholds from the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. After previously remanding the decision for not being submitted in a form that was judicially reviewable, Judge Timothy Stanceu said that this time around the agency has made a scope decision "in a form the court is able to sustain."