Judge Claire Kelly at the Court of International Trade probed the Commerce Department's process of determining whether surrogate country data is aberrational in antidumping cases, during May 19 oral arguments. In a case where she granted a motion for reconsideration following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling on a nearly identical issue, Kelly questioned Commerce's lack of clear criteria and "know it when I see it" approach.
Court of International Trade activity
Kingtom Aluminio SRL, a Dominican Republic aluminum extrusion company, is under Enforce and Protect Act investigation by CBP over suspected antidumping and countervailing duty evasion, CBP said in a notice posted May 19. The Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee, represented by Robert DeFrancesco of Wiley, filed the allegation against the company. Kingtom is already involved in other EAPA cases (see 2104280032), some of which are being litigated over at the Court of International Trade (see 2105180055).
The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's second remand results which, under court order, added the full amount of duty drawback adjustment to two companies' export prices and nixed two circumstances of sale adjustments in an antidumping case on Turkish steel.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 19 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The Federal Register notice announcing an antidumping duty investigation on walk-behind lawn mowers was sufficient notification to a Chinese exporter, and Commerce’s failure to otherwise notify the exporter of the investigation did not violate the exporter’s due process rights, the agency said in an issues and decision memorandum issued May 14 alongside its final determination in the investigation.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
A case challenging an Enforce and Protect Act determination from aluminum extrusion importer Hialeah Aluminum Supply (see 2104300056)]) was consolidated with a similar case from Global Aluminum Distributor (see 2104280049), according to a May 17 order from the Court of International Trade. Both Hialeah and Global Aluminum argue that CBP's process of determining that the exporters evaded antidumping duties on aluminum extrusions from China violated their Fifth Amendment due process rights and the agency's own regulations.
Steel exporter SeAH Steel Corporation along with consolidated plaintiff Husteel Co., Nexteel Co., AJU Besteel and Iljin Steel Corporation, argued against a government motion in the Court of International Trade to stay proceedings in an antidumping duty case until the Federal Circuit rules on a similar question in a separate case. In a May 17 joint opposition brief, the plaintiffs said that the Department of Justice failed to make a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits of the Federal Circuit case, doesn't argue that it would be "irreparably injured" without a stay, and doesn't consider that there is a fair chance the plaintiffs would be injured by the stay.
The Court of International Trade on May 18 sustained a scope revision in antidumping and countervailing duty investigation on steel trailer wheels from China, backing the Commerce Department's addition to the scope in its final determinations of language covering Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) chrome-covered wheels. In a pair of opinions, Judge Gary Katzmann said Commerce had authority to determine the scope of its investigations, and found that the agency "provided adequate explanation" for its decision to include PVD chrome wheels. However, Katzmann did remand the cases due to Commerce's retroactive imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties, instructing the agency to assess the duties from the final scope memo that made the scope changes, and not the date of the preliminary determination.
The Court of International Trade ruled that a shipment of 443 bales of secondhand clothing imported by DIS Vintage should be classified as “commingled goods” and subject to the “highest rate of duty for any part thereof,” siding with the government in a May 17 opinion. Judge Timothy Reif, after a government analysis of 41 samples of the subject merchandise, determined that nine weren't classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 6309 as “worn clothing and other worn articles” since they had no visible signs of appreciable wear.