The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Commission's affirmative injury determination in the antidumping investigation of polyethylene terephtalate from Oman in a Sept. 30 confidential opinion. Judge Timothy Reif sent a letter to the litigants instructing them to look over the opinion with an eye out for confidential information, informing the court by Oct. 7 whether any further information should be redacted. A public opinion of the decision can be expected by Oct. 8. OCTAL Inc. brought the case, arguing that the ITC's conclusion of adverse volume and price effects was not backed by substantial evidence (OCTAL Inc., et al. v. United States, CIT #20-03698).
Court of International Trade activity
A conflict of interest allegation did not cause an antidumping duty investigation respondent to untimely file its questionnaire responses, the Commerce Department argued in a Sept. 27 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. Responding to Tau-Ken Temir's brief explaining that this allegation was the reason for the delay in filing the responses, Commerce said that it did not abuse its discretion when it found that the petitioner did not interfere with TKT's ability to file the questionnaire responses (Tau-Ken Temir LLP et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00173).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Sept. 30 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department's decision to include certain derivative losses from the financial expense component of an antidumping respondent's cost of production (COP) was properly supported, the AD petitioner Domtar Corporation argued in a Sept. 29 brief at the Court of International Trade. Seeing as the respondent itself referred to the derivative losses as being related to the company's financials rather than investment activity, it was reasonable for Commerce to treat them as such, the brief said (Suzano S.A. v. United States, CIT #21-00069).
CBP erroneously classified importer Topcon Positioning System's rotating laser levels under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9031, the importer argued in a Sept. 29 complaint at the Court of International Trade. By failing to analyze the principal use of the laser levels, CBP neglected to properly classify the products under HTS subheading 9015,the complaint said (Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. v. United States, CIT #14-00189).
Nucor Tubular Products launched a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade seeking higher dumping rates for the respondents in an antidumping review based on calculation errors committed by the Commerce Department (Nucor Tubular Products Inc. v. United States, CIT #21-00543).
The Commerce Department continued to find that antidumping respondents Aeolus Tyre and Guizhou Tyre Co. were de facto controlled by the Chinese government, denying them separate rate status in Sept. 24 remand results filed at the Court of International Trade (Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd. et al. v. United States, CIT Consol. #17-00100).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Mobilier Rustique (Beauce) Inc. will appeal a recent Court of International Trade ruling that the Commerce Department cannot conduct expedited reviews of countervailing duty investigations, according to a Sept. 28 notice of appeal. In its remand results in the case, Commerce said that it could not find a statutory home for the expedited reviews conducted on a 2018 CVD order on softwood lumber from Canada. Chief Judge Mark Barnett sustained this finding in an August ruling (see 2108190002) (Mobilier Rustique (Beauce) Inc. v. United States, CIT #19-00164).