The Court of International Trade on May 28 denied the government's motion for partial reconsideration in its customs bond penalty case against surety company Aegis Security Insurance. After the court previously said the U.S. violated an implied contractual term of reasonableness in waiting eight years to demand payment on a customs bond, the government claimed it couldn't reasonably anticipate this would be an issue in this case. Judge Stephen Vaden said the U.S. was clearly on notice this was an issue and, as a result, waived any claims regarding the reasonable time requirement.
The 323.12% antidumping rate received by quartz countertop exporter Antique Group in an administrative review after it missed a questionnaire deadline by five hours is an abuse of the Commerce Department’s discretion, Court of International Trade Judge Mark Barnett said in a May 28 opinion. The judge ordered Commerce to accept the exporter’s late filing; he also determined that the department’s application of adverse facts available to Antique Group would have been unreasonable even if the court had upheld its rejection of the exporter’s late filing. Addressing petitioner Cambria’s claim, Barnett also concluded that Commerce must also reconsider or further explain its departure from the expected method in calculating nonselected respondents' rate.
The Court of International Trade last week remanded the Commerce Department's finding that Germany's Konzessionsabgabenverordnung (KAV) program, which exempts a fee for gas and power pipeline companies that sell electricity below a certain price point that would otherwise be passed onto consumers, wasn't a specific subsidy. Judge Claire Kelly sent the case back for the fourth time, finding that the agency must further investigate whether an alleged subsidy is de facto specific when facts give "reasons to believe" the subsidy may be de facto specific.
The Court of International Trade on May 28 told the Commerce Department to conduct sunset reviews of antidumping duty orders on stilbenic optical brightening agents from Taiwan and China, after the agency revoked the orders after not receiving a timely notice of intent to participate in the reviews. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce's regulation, which calls for revocation of the order after no such notice is received, violates the applicable statute, which says Commerce shall conduct the review after receiving either a notice of intent to participate or a substantive response. Because U.S. producer Archroma timely filed a substantive response, Commerce should have started the reviews.
Exporters of stainless steel flanges from India are close to a settlement with the government to avoid a remand in a case involving an antidumping duty review in which the Commerce Department selected only one respondent (Kisaan Die Tech Private Limited v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00512).
Another petitioner spoke up in favor of the International Trade Commission's redaction of confidential business information after the commission was taken to task for allegedly going too far by Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden (see 2404010066). (OCP v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00219).
A hardwood plywood importer sought dismissal of its case in the Court of International Trade after winning a similar one April 8 (Liberty Woods International Inc. v. U.S., CIT # 20-00143).
After Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden questioned the International Trade Commission in an oral hearing for what he considered to be over-redaction of a petitioner’s record information (see 2404010066), that petitioner supported the ITC’s decision in a brief May 22 (OCP v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00219).
CBP “without explanation” reclassified imported nitrile rubber gloves as non-medical gloves and subjected them to a 3% duty rate, despite the gloves meeting all FDA requirements for medical gloves, their importer said in a complaint filed at the Court of International Trade May 22 (SW Technologies v. U.S., CIT # 23-00119).
Lawyers gave feedback this week on recently issued Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty regulations, with at least one attorney saying the changes were mostly positive for petitioners. They also discussed challenges faced by different parties during International Trade Commission investigations, and they said they sided with the ITC in its ongoing defense of its treatment of confidential information at the Court of International Trade.