The Court of International Trade sustained CBP's finding that Dominican exporter Kingtom Aluminio didn't evade antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. In a June 13 decision made public July 8, Judge Richard Eaton said Kingtom responded to all U.S. requests for information during an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, precluding the use of adverse facts available. He also said the court can't ignore "the total lack of any record evidence of any imports by Kingtom into the Dominican Republic" of aluminum extrusions made in China.
The Supreme Court of the U.S. on June 28 overturned a hallmark of administrative law that had stood for four decades: the court's principle of deferring to federal agencies' interpretation of ambiguous statutes established in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.
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).
CBP announced a new Enforce and Protect Act investigation, saying it has reasonable suspicion that Global Natural Ingredients evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on xanthan gum from China and it has enacted interim measures against the importer.
An importer on June 20 accused CBP of placing “wholly unrelated” lab tests on the record to support an evasion decision and illegally refusing to consider the scope ruling that importer sought from the Commerce Department. As a result, it said, the CBP’s final determination was unlawful (Vanguard Trading Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00253).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 14 granted importer Diamond Tools Technology's voluntary dismissal of its Enforce and Protect Act appeal. The company took to the appellate court after it won its initial challenge to CBP's finding that it evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on Chinese diamond sawblades but lost its application for attorney's fees (see 2307310021) (Diamond Tools Technology v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1882).
The Court of International Trade in a confidential June 17 order sustained CBP's remand results in an aluminum extrusions antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case in which the agency dropped its finding that Global Aluminum and importer Hialeah Aluminum Supply evaded the order (see 2301100033) (H&E Home v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00337).
The Court of International Trade in a confidential decision June 13 sustained CBP's negative evasion finding regarding Dominican company Kingtom Aluminio. Enforce and Protect Act petitioner Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee brought suit, arguing that CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings wrongly overturned an evasion finding initially made by CBP's Trade Remedy and Law Enforcement Directorate (see 2309220032). The petitioner claimed that TRLED was right to use adverse inferences against Kingtom after the company interfered with CBP's ability to verify information submitted by the company. The court hasn't given any indication of when it will make the decision public (Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee v. U.S., CIT # 22-00236).
Importer Diamond Tools Technology voluntarily dismissed its appeal of an Enforce and Protect Act case on diamond sawblades at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The importer took to the appellate court after its application for attorney's fees was rejected by the Court of International Trade (see 2307310021) (Diamond Tools Technology v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1882).
The Court of International Trade on June 10 signaled that CBP's practice of not notifying companies when they become subject to interim Enforce and Protect Act investigations could give rise to a due process claim should the company sufficiently allege that it suffered "specific enough harm." However, the court found that importer Phoenix Metal failed to allege that harm with enough specificity.