Importer Southern Motion told the Court of International Trade that its electric DC motors were made in Vietnam and thus should have received a country of origin determination of Vietnam and not China. Filing a complaint at the trade court on March 31, Southern Motion said its products were improperly assessed Section 301 duties as a result of the COO decision (Southern Motion v. United States, CIT # 25-00033).
Petitioner Catfish Farmers of America said again March 14 that a new Vietnamese frozen fish fillet exporter’s single U.S. sale wasn’t bona fide. The government’s arguments to the contrary (see 2502130061) contradicted its own past practice and were post hoc justifications, it said (Catfish Farmers of America v. United States, CIT # 24-00126).
The U.S. and petitioner Catfish Farmers of America each filed responses to remands in two cases dealing, respectively, with the 2018-19 and 2019-20 administrative reviews of the antidumping duty orders on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. United States, CIT # 21-00380; 22-00125).
The Court of International Trade on March 21 sustained the Commerce Department's decision not to investigate the provision of off-peak electricity for less than adequate remuneration in South Korea after three remands before the trade court. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce reasonably laid out the evidence petitioner Nucor Corp. should have provided to "justify a new subsidy investigation of this subset of the broader electricity pricing scheme."
The U.S. defended its use of its quarterly cost methodology in calculating exporter Officine Tecnosider's antidumping duty rate in the 2020-21 administrative review of the AD order on steel plate from Italy, arguing that petitioner Nucor Corp.'s claims to the contrary fail to show that it's the "one and only" reasonable outcome. Submitting a brief on March 19 in defense of its remand results, Commerce said it wasn't free to ignore evidence of a link between the respondent's costs and sales prices during the review period (Officine Tecnosider v. United States, CIT # 23-00001).
The Court of International Trade on March 21 sustained the Commerce Department's third remand results in the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. The agency had again refused to investigate the provision of off-peak electricity for less than adequate remuneration. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce reasonably laid out the evidence that petitioner Nucor Corp. should have provided to "justify a new subsidy investigation of this subset of the broader electricity pricing scheme."
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.
The Commerce Department said on remand at the Court of International Trade that importer Hardware Resources' edge-glued wood boards are wood mouldings and millwork products subject to antidumping and countervailing duty orders on that product from China (Hardware Resources v. United States, CIT # 23-00150).
CBP is not entitled to Customs Passenger Processing Fees paid by individual passengers that cancel their tickets and never actually travel to the U.S., the Court of International Trade held on March 18. Siding with Southwest Airlines, Judge Gary Katzmann said that the statute, 19 U.S.C. 58c(a), doesn't allow CBP to collect the fees where the customer doesn't travel to the U.S. and no customs inspection services are performed.
Dutch mushroom exporter Prochamp said March 14 that Germany had been the right third-country comparison market in an antidumping duty investigation of its products, echoing the argument raised by the U.S. (see 2503030073) (Giorgio Foods v. United States, CIT # 23-00133).