The Commerce Department was right to consider the assembly of hardwood plywood in Vietnam “minor and insignificant” when it reached an affirmative circumvention ruling for 20 Vietnamese exporters, the U.S. said July 2 in response to importers’ and exporters’ multiple motions for judgment (see 2404020054) and 2402020054) (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00144).
Country of origin cases
The U.K. must reassess whether it should investigate cotton imports from China suspected of being made with forced labor after an appellate court ruled last month that the country’s National Crime Agency wrongly decided against opening the probe.
CBP rejected children’s product manufacturer Summer Infant’s claims that its Learn-to-Sit booster seats should be classified as traditional booster seats. As a result, the Learn-to-Sit booster seats are subject to Section 301 duties, according to a recent ruling released by CBP June 14.
Tire importer ZC Rubber America told the Court of International Trade on July 2 that the government and petitioner Accuride Corp. failed to defend the Commerce Department's "substantial transformation" analysis regarding steel truck wheels made in Thailand with either Chinese-origin rims or discs (Asia Wheel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00143).
Litigants in a pair of cases at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit jumped on the U.S. Supreme Court's move last week to axe the principle of agency deference when interpreting ambiguous statutes (see 2406280051). In notices of supplemental authority, two importers told the appellate court that the Court of International Trade relied on the now-defunct Chevron deference standard.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated June 17-27 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
Importer Nutricia North America filed an amended opening brief in a customs case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on its substances used to "treat life-treatening diseases in young children," after government attorneys asked for the revisions. The brief was amended in two spots (Nutricia North America v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1436).
Refraining from joining exporters’ June 13 submission to the Court of International Trade (see 2406140059), a plaintiff-intervenor importer filed its own motion for judgment making similar arguments against Commerce’s finding that Thai solar panel exporters had circumvented an antidumping duty order on solar panels from China (Canadian Solar International Limited v. U.S., CIT # 23-00222).
The Commerce Department interpreted the scope of the antidumping duty order on cased pencils from China in a way that is "contrary to the plain language of its terms," importer School Specialty told the Court of International Trade in a June 28 complaint. The importer said the agency also misapplied the "substantial transformation test" in its scope ruling (School Specialty v. U.S., CIT # 24-00098).
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.