The Commerce Department on June 26 called an importer’s claim that it could have double-counted industry support for an antidumping investigation “misplaced,” saying that double-counting wasn’t possible normally under the department's calculation method and that there was no evidence U.S. producers had “literally counted each ton of pipe they produced twice” (Tenaris Bay City v. U.S., CIT # 22-00343).
The U.S. Supreme Court on June 28 overturned a foundational decision in administrative law, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which established the principle of deferring to federal agencies' interpretations of ambiguous statutes. In a 6-3 decision, split along ideological lines, the majority said courts "must exercise their independent judgment in deciding whether an agency has acted within its statutory authority," as required by the Administrative Procedure Act. The court's decision is expected to affect international trade matters, and could lead the Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to take a more active role in settling issues in trade remedies cases (see 2401180060).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's decision to pick a secondary mandatory respondent in an antidumping review despite temporal limits on the selection process. However, Judge Mark Barnett sent back the agency's methodology for picking the respondent due to its failure to explain its removal of Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. from the list of eligible exporters.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a June 26 text-only order granted the government's request for 30 more days to file its reply brief in a customs case from importer Blue Sky The Color of Imagination on the customs classification of calendar planners. The reply is now due Aug. 2 (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1710).
Further information placed on the record during a remand shows importers evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese glycine by transshipping their product through Indonesia, a petitioner claimed June 26 before the Court of International Trade (Newtrend USA v. U.S., CIT # 22-00347).
Exporter Hindalco Industries told the Court of International Trade last week that the Commerce Department erred in finding that the provision of coal to the company below cost is de facto specific. Filing its motion for judgment, Hindalco added that in the case the court finds the supposed subsidy is specific, Commerce illicitly calculated the subsidy's benefit to the company (Hindalco Industries v. United States, CIT # 23-00260).
The U.S. in a June 25 brief defended the Commerce Department's finding that 16 of exporter Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co.'s input suppliers are government authorities based on adverse facts available, which was used due to the Chinese government's failure to provide adequate information (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00136).
The Commerce Department can't extend an antidumping and countervailing duty circumvention finding based on adverse facts available for one mandatory respondent on a "country-wide basis," exporter Trina Solar Co. argued June 25. Filing a motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade, Trina said Commerce made "no company-specific findings" on whether all the cooperative companies were circumventing the AD/CVD orders on Chinese solar cells and, as a matter of law, can't impose the circumvention finding on those companies (Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00228).
The Court of International Trade in a June 18 opinion made public June 26 sustained the Commerce Department's decision to pick a second mandatory respondent in an AD review of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision saying the agency couldn't use just one. Judge Mark Barnett said that Commerce reasonably said it could look at two respondents, despite the temporal limitations on going back and picking another. However, the court remanded Commerce's method of picking the respondent, remanding the agency's decision to leave exporter Shandong Linglong Tyre Co. off the list. Barnett also remanded Commerce's rejection of various companies' requests for separate rate status.
The Drug Enforcement Administration told CBP that it believes importer UniChem's entry of "7-keto dehydroepiandrosterone is a Schedule III anabolic steroid and its importation violates DEA regulations." As a result, DEA requested that CBP seize the entry on DEA's behalf, the U.S. told the Court of International Trade in a June 25 status report (UniChem Enterprises v. U.S., CIT # 24-00033).