It's unclear if the Court of International Trade has the authority to order reliquidation on imports to "increase duties to the detriment of importers," the Solar Energy Industries Association argued in a post-argument brief at the Court of International Trade. SEIA said the trade court should look "skeptically" on the government's request seeking such liquidation, and "require a compelling case based on the equities for granting such relief" (Solar Energy Industries Association v. United States, CIT # 20-03941).
Three importers found to have evaded antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on Chinese glycine told the Court of International Trade that CBP has failed to offer any evidence of direct evasion of the orders. The importers, Newtrend USA, Starille and Nutrawave Co., said in a brief last week that all three categories of evidence relied on by CBP amount to "nothing more than speculation" (Newtrend USA Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00347).
The Commerce Department didn’t err in applying adverse facts available to exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret for a subsidy program that the agency only became aware of due to a letter from the exporter it rejected as untimely, the U.S. and petitioner Rebar Action Coalition said Feb. 21 in two briefs opposing the exporter's motion for judgment (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. U.S., CIT #24-00096).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 27 sustained CBP's finding that importers Glob Energy Corp., Ascension Chemicals, UMD Solutions and Crude Chem Technology evaded the antidumping duty order on xanthan gum from China. Judges Kimberly Moore, Todd Hughes and Tiffany Cunningham rejected the importers' claim that CBP was required to refer the case to the Commerce Department to see if petitioner CP Kelco was still injured by oilfield xanthan gum imports, based on evidence purportedly showing the company no longer made oilfield xanthan gum. The judges also said CBP properly used adverse inferences against the claimed manufacturers of the merchandise. Lastly, the court said the Court of International Trade erred in finding it didn't have jurisdiction over entries erroneously liquidated by CBP, but the error was harmless given that the evasion finding was properly supported.
The International Trade Commission improperly found that the U.S. industry was injured by shrimp imports and not by "conditions of competition unrelated to imports," a trade group for Indian shrimp exporters told the Court of International Trade in a Feb. 24 complaint. The trade group, the Seafood Exporters Association of India, also alleged that cooked frozen shrimp products "must be considered a separate like product distinct from uncooked frozen shrimp products" (Seafood Exporters Association of India v. United States, CIT # 25-00031).
Importer Outokumpu Stainless Steel brought a Feb. 20 complaint to the Court of International Trade alleging CBP had wrongly failed to correct the country of origin designated on 173 of its entries, resulting in the importer being assessed Section 232 tariffs (Outokumpu Stainless USA v. United States, CIT # 25-00047).
Eteros has not shown good cause for an expedited scheduling order in its case alleging that CBP retaliated against the company's executives after the company received a favorable ruling at the Court of International Trade in a case on imports of marijuana paraphernalia, the U.S. told the trade court on Feb. 24. The government also said it's likely that CIT doesn't have jurisdiction to hear the matter, indicating that it soon will file a motion to dismiss the case (Eteros Technologies USA v. United States, CIT # 25-00036).
Steel importer Seneca Foods Corp. urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 21 to overturn the Commerce Department's rejection of its Section 232 steel tariff exclusion requests, claiming its approach to exclusion requests "sought to ensure that the President's aims" in imposing the tariffs "would be fully realized." Seneca said the fact that U.S. Steel Corp., which objected to Seneca's requests, "declined to supply the very same volumes for which Seneca sought exclusions should be dispositive" (Seneca Foods Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1310).
The Court of International Trade upheld on Feb. 25 the Commerce Department's inclusion of Precision Components' low-carbon steel blanks in the scope of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Joseph Laroski said Commerce was entirely in line when it considered a prior scope ruling asked for by Precision and concluded that the products at issue in the prior scope ruling were identical to the products considered in the subsequent scope case.
U.S. activated carbon producers Calgon Carbon Corporation and Norit Americas brought a complaint to the Court of International Trade on Feb. 21 claiming that the Commerce Department wrongly accepted an antidumping duty order administrative review mandatory respondent’s allegation of a ministerial error. The allegation actually concerned “a methodological issue, not a ministerial issue,” they said (Calgon Carbon Corporation v. United States, CIT # 25-00028).