The Court of International Trade erred in rejecting aluminum extrusion manufacturer Kingtom Aluminio's bid to intervene in a case challenging the determination of duty evasion in which Kingtom was the company alleged to be aiding in the evasion, Kingtom said in a June 25 brief requesting the court's reconsideration. Kingtom says that the court overlooked Kingtom's interest in the case and failed to consider that Kingtom shares a legal claim with the plaintiff (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. U.S., CIT #21-00198).
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Counsel for an alleged transshipper in a duty evasion scheme, Kingtom Aluminio, plans to ask the Court of International Trade to reconsider a decision it made to deny the company the right to intervene in a case challenging the determination of evasion. In an Enforce and Protect Act case concerning duties on aluminum extrusions from China, CBP found that importer Global Aluminum Distributor evaded the duties by bringing in the extrusions via Kingtom in the Dominican Republic. Global Aluminum says that Kingtom was the actual manufacturer of the goods in question (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. U.S., CIT #21-00198).
Dominican aluminum extrusion manufacturer Kingtom Aluminio SRL will not be allowed to intervene in a Court of International Trade case in which it is alleged to be involved in a transshipment scheme to avoid antidumping duties, according to a June 21 order. Kingtom did not establish that its interest in continuing to sell aluminum extrusions to the importer plaintiffs without duties is an "interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action," as required by the court's rules. Kingtom also did not have a claim that shares with the main action -- a challenge of an Enforce and Protect Act" investigation -- a common question of law or fact (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00198).
The Commerce Department's denial of third country sales data for evasion of antidumping duties in establishing normal value in an antidumping duty case lacks proper evidence, shrimp exporter Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited said in a brief filed June 18 with the Court of International Trade. ZASF said that there was no evidence in the record to back Commerce's reliance on CBP's determination in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation that ZASF's shrimp imports from Vietnam evaded antidumping duties from India (Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited et al v. United States, CIT #21-00031).
Dominican aluminum extrusion manufacturer Kingtom Aluminio SRL should not be allowed to intervene in a Court of International Trade case in which it is alleged to be involved in a transshipment scheme to avoid antidumping duties, the Enforce and Protect Act case alleger Ta Chen International said in a June 16 brief. Although it made the covered merchandise, Kingtom did not import it through evasion, Ta Chen said.
A Commerce Department determination to apply adverse facts available to Thai pipe exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company in an antidumping administrative review and spurn the company's sales and cost databases based on a notice of investigation in an evasion case is "egregious," Saha Thai said in a June 15 motion for judgment in the Court of International Trade. Saha Thai expressed particular concern over Commerce's decision to include the company's U.S. sales of dual-certified pipe in its calculation of the antidumping duty margin since it had already been determined that a scope ruling on dual-certified pipe did not apply to entries covered by the 2018-19 administrative review (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Limited v. U.S., CIT #21-00049).
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The Court of International Trade consolidated two cases challenging CBP's Enforce and Protect Act administrative review on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings, a June 8 order said. The two now-consolidated plaintiffs, Norca Industrial Co. and International Piping & Procurement Group, were subject to an EAPA investigation for allegedly evading antidumping duties on pipe fittings from China by transshipping them through Vietnam. IPPG's case, filed under case number #21-00193, will be consolidated under Norca's case, #21-00192. Both parties alleged due process violations under the EAPA investigation and claimed that the AD order does not cover their imported products (Norca Industrial Co., LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00192).
Coinciding with an increased use of CBP's Enforce and Protect Act process for investigating possible antidumping and/or countervailing duty evasion is a feeling among importers that EAPA action is largely skewed toward the alleger. “Typically, the first notice the importer receives is after the agency has already accepted the allegation and imposed draconian ‘Interim Measures’ that treat the importers’ goods as subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties, a process" that "has proven to be massively unjust,” Mary Hodgins, a lawyer at Morris Manning, said by email. The process is facing increased scrutiny, with several lawsuits that raise due process questions making their way through the courts.