Court of International Trade activity

Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann again remanded parts of the Commerce Department remand results on the eighth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on xanthan gum from China. He also granted in part a U.S. motion to dismiss in his Dec. 16 decision.

Court of International Trade Judge Thomas Aquilino upheld the Commerce Department’s redetermination on remand that set at 26.05% the antidumping rate for exporter LG Chem’s superabsorbent polymers. On remand, the department switched back to a model match methodology it had used for the review’s preliminary redetermination, saying not enough evidence on the record supported the one used in its final determination (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).

The Commerce Department ignored court precedent when it found magnesia carbon bricks from China that contained alumina were subject to antidumping and countervailing duties, the Court of International Trade said in a decision issued Dec. 12.

A three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit told the Court of International Trade that it has now twice wrongly told an importer that its first-sale price method to determine the duty level of its cookware was prohibited.

In light of speculation about whether President-elect Donald Trump will use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada, observers are revisiting the lone decision in the history of U.S. case law reviewing emergency trade action: U.S. v. Yoshida International.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 remanded the Commerce Department’s classification of xanthan gum exporter Fufeng’s coal and its direct calculation of the exporter’s energy costs. Judge Gary Katzmann dismissed the exporter’s challenge to the Cohen’s d test and to the department’s decision to subtract Section 301 tariffs from the Fufeng’s value calculation (Neimenggu Fufeng Biotechnologies Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00068).

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 remanded the Commerce Department's decision to include importer Hardware Resources' edge-glued boards in the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wood mouldings and millwork products from China. In his first decision since joining the court, Judge Joseph Laroski held that Commerce failed to consider whether Hardware Resources' products were, in fact, mouldings or millwork products under the orders' plain language.

The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Dec. 13 remanded the Commerce Department's rejection of 31 of importer California Steel Industries' Section 232 exclusion requests. Judge M. Miller Baker found that Commerce failed to consider whether objector U.S. Steel Corp. could supply the entire amount of slab represented across all 31 exclusions as opposed to just the slab covered by one exclusion request. However, Baker sustained Commerce's rejection of another 14 exclusion requests from California Steel, finding that the agency reasonably found U.S. Steel could timely provide slab to the importer in a sufficient quantity.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The Commerce Department erred in finding that respondent Habich and its U.S. sales agent aren't affiliated, as well as in its calculations of Habich's normal value based on its third-country sales to Mexico, petitioner Lumimove, doing business as WPC Technologies, argued. Filing a motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade on Dec. 5, WPC said Commerce's failure to further investigate the alleged affiliation between Habich and its U.S. sales agent amounted to a "dereliction of duty" (Lumimove, Inc., d/b/a WPC Technologies v. U.S., CIT # 24-00105).