The Commerce Department acted arbitrarily when it denied a retroactive extension to a filing deadline missed by a lawyer suffering from medical issues. a move that would eventually lead to the revocation of an antidumping duty order that had been in place for decades, a domestic producer said in challenging the revocation in a brief filed June 17.
Court of International Trade activity
The Commerce Department's denial of third country sales data for evasion of antidumping duties in establishing normal value in an antidumping duty case lacks proper evidence, shrimp exporter Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited said in a brief filed June 18 with the Court of International Trade. ZASF said that there was no evidence in the record to back Commerce's reliance on CBP's determination in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation that ZASF's shrimp imports from Vietnam evaded antidumping duties from India (Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited et al v. United States, CIT #21-00031).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
A Court of International Trade decision eliminating the extension of Section 232 duties to steel and aluminum "derivatives" has formally been appealed by the U.S. to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to a June 17 docketing notice. The CIT ruling, decided by a three-judge panel at the trade court, found that President Donald Trump violated statutory time limits when expanding the tariffs to the derivative products. Importer PrimeSource Building Products successfully argued that the tariff expansion was announced well after the 105-day deadline for tariff action following the initial Commerce Department report that led to the initial imposition of the Section 232 duties in 2018 (see 2104050049) (PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, Federal Circuit, #21-2066).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping administrative review of an antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel standard pipe and tube products from Turkey, dropping any adjustments to the sales-below-cost test it made after finding a particular market situation, in a one-page June 16 decision.
No serious gaps in the record exist proving that plywood producer Shelter Forest did not develop its plywood after the Commerce Department issued antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China, the Department of Justice said in a brief June 16. Contradicting comments on Commerce's remand results from petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood, DOJ backed Commerce's remand decision to reverse its affirmative determination that Shelter Forest's plywood circumvented the AD/CV duties.
The Commerce Department cannot construe the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy as a de jure specific domestic subsidy in a countervailing duty case on ripe olives from Spain, the Court of International Trade said in a June 17 opinion. Finding for the second time that Commerce’s interpretation of the statute is contrary to law, Judge Gary Katzmann found that the agency cannot permissibly find that the CAP was a countervailable specific domestic subsidy since “there is no uniform treatment across the agricultural sector in the provision of benefits.”
The three-judge panel in the Section 301 litigation at the Court of International Trade peppered a government lawyer with tough questions June 17 when the judges asked the Department of Justice to explain how its opposition to a court-ordered reliquidation, or money judgment, if the plaintiffs win the case, doesn’t support a finding of irreparable harm for the importers. Oral argument lasting nearly 80 minutes was held on the preliminary injunction (PI) motion Akin Gump filed April 23 for sample-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products to freeze liquidation of unliquidated customs entries from China with lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Russian and Swiss exporters Novolipetsk Steel Public Joint Stock Co. and NOVEX Trading (Swiss) SA will appeal an April 13 Court of International Trade decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a June 14 notice of appeal said. The appeal comes after the exporters lost their challenge to the final determination in the 2017-18 antidumping administrative review of certain hot-rolled flat-rolled carbon-quality steel products from Russia. Judge Claire Kelly dismissed the plaintiffs' claims, saying they lacked standing because they had no entries during the period of review and didn't contend they were resellers of the subject merchandise (Novolipetsk Steel Public Joint Stock Co. et al. v. U.S., CIT #20-00031).