The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Nov. 15 sustained parts and remanded parts of the antidumping duty investigation on lemon juice from Brazil. Judge Claire Kelly rejected the Commerce Department's definition of "partners" in sending back the agency's finding that exporter Louis Dreyfus Co. Sucos and an unnamed supplier aren't affiliated. Conducting an analysis of the affiliation statute under Loper Bright, Kelly said Congress didn't expressly give Commerce the authority to define the term "partners." The judge then defined the term as "a for profit cooperative endeavor in which parties share in risk and reward." The judge remanded the issue for Commerce to apply this definition in its affiliation analysis between Louis Dreyfus Co. and the supplier.
Congress gave the Commerce Department wide latitude to go after "masked" dumping, the Court of International Trade said in a decision made public Nov. 15 that upheld the agency's differential pricing analysis.
The Court of International Trade in a decision made public Nov. 15 held that Congress meant to give the Commerce Department wide latitude to correct for "masked" dumping, sustaining the agency's differential pricing analysis. Judge Claire Kelly previously rejected exporter Garg Tube's challenge to the differential pricing analysis on the grounds that the company failed to exhaust its administrative remedies. In response to Garg's claim that the end of judicial deference to agencies' interpretations of federal statutes eliminated the need for exhaustion here, Kelly said this claim must fail because a statutory interpretation of the applicable statute doesn't "materially alter the result in this case." Kelly also sustained Commerce's decision on remand to drop its use of adverse facts available against Garg Tube.
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The U.S. and an Italian pasta exporter argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 8 over whether the Commerce Department should have distinguished pasta grades using the protein contents reported on the nutritional information that appears on the pasta’s packages or using companies’ internal information (La Molisana v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2060).
The Court of International Trade remanded the Commerce Department's finding that exporter Louis Dreyfus wasn't affiliated with its main fresh lemon supplier, leading to a de minimis rate for the company in the antidumping duty investigation on lemon juice from Brazil. Filing a confidential decision Nov. 7, Judge Claire Kelly gave the parties until Nov. 14 to review the confidential information in the opinion (Ventura Coastal v. U.S., CIT # 23-00009).
In response to U.S. opposition (see 2410090041) to its motion for judgment (see 2408010044), an aluminum importer again said Nov. 5 that its manufacturer’s production in South Korea was not minor or insignificant (Hanon Systems Alabama Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00013).
In response to the government (see 2409240057), a Turkish steel exporter again said Nov. 1 that the dates of its U.S. sales should be determined by its contract dates, not the dates on its invoices (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT # 24-00018).
The Commerce Department reasonably interpreted the Trade Act of 1930 to pause antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from four Southeast Asian countries, the government told the Court of International Trade on Oct. 29. Responding to U.S. solar cell maker Auxin Solar and solar module designer Concept Clean Energy, the U.S. said the two companies' arguments belie "Congress' broad delegation of rulemaking authority" to respond to an emergency found by the president (Auxin Solar v. United States, CIT # 23-00274).
A domestic trade group for catfish farmers brought a motion for judgment Oct. 15 before the Court of International Trade arguing that the Commerce Department should have at least applied partial adverse facts available to a mandatory respondent in its 2020-21 review of frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. U.S., CIT # 24-00082).