The Commerce Department failed to use adverse facts available against antidumping duty review respondent PT Bahari Makmur Sejati in the AD investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Indonesia, petitioner American Shrimp Processors Association argued in a Feb. 21 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The petitioner also challenged the agency's surrogate company pick for valuing home market profit and expense ratios and "allocation of the entire sales price for shrimp sold with sauce to the shrimp alone" (American Shrimp Processors Association v. United States, CIT # 25-00027).
The Commerce Department failed to investigate subsidies received by cross-owned suppliers of fresh shrimp in the countervailing duty investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador, petitioner American Shrimp Processors Association argued in a Feb. 21 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The association also contested Commerce's findings that the provision of fuel and brackish water for less than adequate remuneration were not countervailable (American Shrimp Processors Association v. United States, CIT # 25-00026).
The Court of International Trade on Feb. 25 sustained the Commerce Department's inclusion of importer Precision Components' low-carbon steel blanks within the scope of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Joseph Laroski said Commerce reasonably determined that the products were already found to be in-scope merchandise in a 2020 scope ruling involving products from Precision. In its second scope ruling request, Precision said its products were "moved within the scope in" the previous scope ruling. The court said it was "more than reasonable for Commerce to rely upon Precision's own statements."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Target General Merchandise said in a Feb. 20 response to a U.S. cross-motion for judgment in its classification case that it no longer will be disputing CBP’s classification of its artificial Christmas trees, explaining that the government is already arguing that the trees should be classified under a duty-free Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading (Target General Merchandise v. United States, CIT Consol. # 15-00069).
Importer Mitsubishi Power Americas asked leave Feb. 18 from the Court of International Trade to file a short sur-reply to the U.S.’s support of a cross-motion for judgment (Mitsubishi Power Americas v. United States, CIT # 21-00573).
Anti-forced labor advocacy group International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates) doesn't have standing to challenge CBP's failure to respond to a withhold release order petition to ban cocoa from Cote d'Ivoire, the U.S. argued in a Feb. 20 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government claimed that IRAdvocates has not established that it suffered an "injury in fact." It also said any alleged injury isn't "traceable" to the "non-issuance of a WRO," and that the alleged injury isn't "redressable" by CBP (International Rights Advocates v. Kristi Noem, Fed. Cir. # 24-2316).
Exporter Nanjing Kaylang's cabinets made from processed phragmite, a type of reed, were reasonably found by the Commerce Department to fall under antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets from China, Court of International Trade Judge Thomas Aquilino ruled Feb. 21.
The Commerce Department properly included Asia Wheel Co.'s trailer wheels made of Chinese rims and Thai discs in the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on steel trailer wheels from China, the Court of International Trade held in a pair of nearly identical decisions. Judge Gary Katzmann said that Commerce didn't illegally expand the scope of the orders since the agency left open the possibility in the original AD/CVD investigations to discuss mixed-origin wheels in a later scope ruling.
Ashley Akers, former senior trial counsel at DOJ, has joined Holland & Knight as senior counsel, Akers announced on LinkedIn. Akers served at DOJ for over seven years, joining initially as a trial attorney then moving to senior trial counsel in 2024. At DOJ, Akers worked on a number of trade remedies cases at the Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.