The Commerce Department cannot redefine price adjustments in less-than-fair-value investigations to "disaggregate" the value actually agreed to by the buyer and the seller, defendant-appellant LDC Argentina told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Dec. 7 reply brief. Commerce did just that, though, when it made a price adjustment for renewable identification numbers (RINs) -- credits used for compliance with the EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard Program (Vicentin S.A.I.C., et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-1988).
The Court of International Trade set a date -- March 22, 2022 -- for in-person oral argument date to discuss importer Crown Cork & Seal's motion to dismiss the first two counts of a customs fraud case brought by the Department of Justice. DOJ launched its case following a 10-year investigation, seeking more than $18 million over misclassified metal vacuum closures, alleging fraud, gross negligence and negligence. CCS moved to dismiss these first two counts, holding that the U.S. only has the facts to support a claim of negligence (The United States v. Crown Cork & Seal, USA, Inc. et al., CIT #21-361).
The Commerce Department must either further explain or reconsider its decision to adjust the steel plate costs for all reported control numbers in an antidumping duty investigation into wind towers, the Court of International Trade said in a Dec. 13 ruling. The agency must do so since it failed to group the CONNUMs by any of the established 11 physical characteristics used to differentiate the products or otherwise use the characteristics as a "guidepost," Judge Leo Gordon said.
While the companies found to have evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China argue that the evasion investigation deprived them of their due process rights, this is not how Congress set up the evasion statute, the Department of Justice argued in a Dec. 10 brief. Opposing the plaintiffs, led by American Pacific Plywood, at the Court of International Trade, DOJ said that the Enforce and Protect Act does not require CBP to notify a party that it's under investigation nor give a company access to confidential information or an opportunity to be heard. DOJ also made the case to CIT that the facts back up its ultimate evasion finding (American Pacific Plywood, Inc. et al. v. United States, CIT Consol. #20-03914).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade should not stay a case over the U.S.'s bid to collect antidumping duties on entries brought in between 2000 and 2001, the Department of Justice argued in a Dec. 10 brief. Though the defendant in the case, surety company American Home Assurance Company (AHAC), wants the case stayed until a resolution in a similar case, the U.S. argues that it will be harmed due to its ongoing discovery efforts in the AHAC action and that AHAC has failed to show any hardship. The U.S. also says the speculative nature of how the related case will affect the AHAC action does not warrant a stay (United States v. American Home Assurance Company, CIT #20-00175).
The Commerce Department's position that the provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration is specific to solar cell producers is not backed by substantial evidence, countervailing duty review respondent Risen Energy Co. argued in a Dec. 1 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The arguments that the government relies on misinterpret the evidence cited by Commerce and in fact affirm the minor role of China's National Development and Reform Commission -- the entity China used to establish the specificity of the alleged benefits, Risen argued (Risen Energy Co., Ltd., et al. v. United States, CIT Consol. #20-03912).
The Court of International Trade remanded on Dec. 13 the Commerce Department's final results in the antidumping duty investigation of utility scale wind towers from South Korea. Judge Leo Gordon held that Commerce didn't group the different towers' control numbers together by any of the required 11 physical characteristics or use the characteristics as a "guidepost." Instead, the agency adjusted the towers' costs by weight-averaging the reported steel plate costs for all the reported CONNUMs. Gordon asked Commerce for further explanation or reconsideration.
The Commerce Department can no longer make a particular market situation adjustment to an antidumping respondent's cost of production in a sales-below-cost test, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in a Dec. 10 opinion. Cementing what the Court of International Trade has repeatedly held, a three-judge panel at the appellate court said that the statute -- in particular, a section of the 2015 Trade Preferences Extension Act -- does not permit such a PMS adjustment. Rather, the statute only allows a PMS adjustment for constructed value, the Federal Circuit said.
The parties appealing a Court of International Trade decision, led by Shanxi Hairui Trade Co., filed a confidential appendix that is not in compliance with the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the appellate court said in a Dec. 7 notice. The confidential version of the appendix doesn't include the "pertinent excerpts of any statutes imposing confidentiality or the entirety of any judicial or administrative protective order" at the beginning of the filing. Further, the document doesn't have the required proof of service, the notice said. The appellants are challenging the Commerce Department's final results in the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from China, in which Commerce used adverse facts available (Shanxi Hairui Trade Co., Ltd. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-2067).