The Court of International Trade agreed to interview three Italian witnesses in an ongoing challenge brought by Aida on the valuation of its entries of industrial stamping presses. On Feb. 14, Judge Stephen Vaden granted a joint request (see 2202140042) that had asked him to issue an order to appoint a commissioner authorized to take testimony in Italy and to issue a Letter of Request for International Judicial Assistance to local counsels in Italy representing both parties. The three witnesses possess specialized knowledge required in the case. Aida claims that CBP liquidated two entries based on an allegedly incorrect appraisal by Aida's customs broker in 2015. In order to move forward with the case, both Aida and the Department of Justice agreed that testimony regarding the value of the imported presses was required.
The Court of International Trade denied a motion to stay in a challenge to the all-others rate in a countervailing duty administrative review until a decision is made on a motion to dismiss the case. Denying the motion from petitioner Dexstar Wheel in a text order, Judge Mark Barnett ordered that a joint proposed briefing schedule be submitted by close of business on Feb. 15. Rimco filed the lawsuit challenging the Commerce Department's all-others rate in the countervailing duty review of steel wheels 12 to 16.5 inches in diameter from China. Dexstar argued that Commerce did not actually set an all-others rate in the review since the only two respondents for which rates were given received the China-wide adverse facts available rate. The petitioner moved to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim (see 2201250070) (Rimco v. United States, CIT #21-00588).
A respondent in an antidumping duty investigation says Commerce's failure to conduct on-site verification cost it the opportunity to correct deficiencies in questionnaires sent by the agency instead, causing the respondent, Asia Pacific Fibers, to get a total adverse facts available AD rate, the company said in a Feb. 14 complaint at the Court of International Trade (PT. Asia Pacific Fibers TBK v. United States, CIT #22-00007).
The Commerce Department reversed its decision to collapse two mandatory respondents and one of their affiliates in an antidumping duty investigation. In a bid to bring its stance in line with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Commerce said in Feb. 14 remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade that evidence to collapse all three entities was insufficient, particularly because evidence from the two mandatory respondents didn't show any common ownership. The agency also reinstated its use of adverse facts available over one of the respondents' reporting of its products' yield strength (Prosperity Tieh Enterprise Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #16-00138).
The Commerce Department erred when it found that Al Ghurair Iron & Steel LLC circumvented the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) from China via the United Arab Emirates, AGIS said in its Feb. 14 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Al Ghurair Iron & Steel v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1199).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department complied with the Court of International Trade's remand instructions when it found that certain door thresholds qualify for the "finished merchandise" exclusion from the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China, the Justice Department said in a pair of Feb. 14 reply briefs. Filing its responses in two separate cases, one brought by Columbia Aluminum Products and the other by Worldwide Door Components, Commerce said that it relied on CIT's rulings to find that the plaintiffs' door thresholds qualified for the finished merchandise exclusion while ignoring prior authorities that established that a subassembly could not qualify for the exclusion (Worldwide Door Components v. United States, CIT #19-00012) (Columbia Aluminum Products v. United States, CIT # 19-00013).
Aida and the Department of Justice are seeking testimony from three Italian employees of Aida who possess specialized knowledge required in an ongoing case at the Court of International Trade concerning the proper value of six industrial stamping presses, they said in a joint request to Judge Stephen Vaden asking him to issue an order appointing a commissioner authorized to take testimony in Italy and to issue a Letter of Request to Aida's and DOJ's local counsels in Italy. In its initial complaint, Aida claimed that CBP liquidated two entries based on incorrect appraisal by Aida's customs broker in 2015. Aida challenged the appraised value of the items via a protest, which was denied in 2018. In order to move forward with the case, both Aida and DOJ agree that testimony regarding the value of the imported presses is required.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 14 order granted an injunction until the conclusion of litigation against the liquidation of two plaintiffs' mattress imports. The Department of Justice pushed back against that timeline. It urged an end date of April 30, the same end date as the first administrative review period of the antidumping duty order the plaintiffs are contesting. Judge Gary Katzmann said that the plaintiffs, Best Mattresses International and Rose Lion Furniture International, sufficiently showed a likelihood to succeed on the merits of the case and that they would be irreparably harmed without the indefinite injunction.
The Court of International Trade granted Turkish steel exporter Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi's motions for judgment in two cases on the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into prestressed concrete steel wire strand from Turkey. Celik challenges the Commerce Department's refusal to accept questionnaire responses that were filed 21 and 87 minutes late in the AD and CVD cases, respectively. Judge Timothy Stanceu said the rejections amounted to an abuse of discretion and imposed a "draconian penalty" on Celik for a "minor and inadvertent technical error by its counsel that had no appreciable effect on the" investigations.