The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's fifth remand redetermination of the antidumping duty investigation of hardwood plywood products from China, according to an Oct. 10 opinion. Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sustained Commerce's separate rate along with its decisions to exclude Jiangyang Wood and Dehua TB, and to include Sanfortune Wood and Longyuan Wood within the order.
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 11 opinion partially sustained and partially remanded the Commerce Department's eighth review of the countervailing duty order on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China. Judge Jane Restani granted the U.S. request for a remand regarding China's Export Buyer's Credit Program and the datasets used to set a benchmark for ocean freight. The court also sent back Commerce's use of a 2010 Thai Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis report in setting the land value benchmark and its de jure specificity finding regarding benefits received from a program that makes income from investment gains derived by a resident enterprise via direct investment in another resident enterprise tax exempt. Restani upheld Commerce's 2017 benefit finding regarding land leases, which was left to coexist in the present review period.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade set a briefing schedule in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on mattresses from Thailand following the departure of respondent Saffron Living Co. from the case. Plaintiffs, led by U.S. company Brooklyn Bedding, are to compile and serve their soft appendix within seven days of the Oct. 6 order and then are to file their comments on the Commerce Department's remand results within seven days of the appendix being filed. The U.S. will file its response no later than 15 days after the remand comments (Brooklyn Bedding v. U.S., CIT # 21-00285).
The use of adverse facts in an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China, and the resulting recalculation of rates for separate rate companies, were unlawful and inconsistent with the facts, a group of separate rate respondents led by Jiangsu Guyu International Trading (Jiangsu) said in their Oct. 5 remand comments to the Court of International Trade. Commerce deviated from its established practice when it assigned a separate rate to Jinlong and so it should similarly deviate in recalculating the average rate assigned to the non-individually reviewed companies, Jiangsu said (American Manufacturers of Multilayered Wood Flooring v. U.S., CIT # 21-00595)
Commerce has wide discretion to change how it defines how a subsidy is specific in countervailing duty cases, countervailing duty petitioners led by Ellwood City Forge Co. said in Oct. 6 remand comments at the Court of International Trade that argued in favor of Commerce's continued finding in a CVD investigation on forged steel fluid end blocks that Germany's KAV program was de jure specific (BGH Edelstahl Siegen v. U.S., CIT # 21-00080).
The Court of International Trade in part granted importer Southern Cross Seafoods' motion to supplement the administrative record in a case on the National Marine Fisheries Service's rejection of the company's application for preapproval to import Chilean sea bass. Judge Timothy Reif said the U.S. needs to explain its position regarding Southern Cross' motion requesting information showing how the NMFS obtained outside legal opinions included in the administrative record and information identifying who authored one of the legal opinions titled. Reif also rejected Southern Cross' motion seeking five other categories of documents, finding either that the U.S. offered the requested documents or that the U.S. did not leave them off in bad faith.
Importer Spirit Aerosystems' reading of the statute pertaining to its drawback claim for unused substitution drawback would lead to "unpredictable and often absurd results," the U.S. said in an Oct. 6 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. Spirit's argument that CBP's implementation of the statute "misconstrues basic tariff terms, renders entire sections" of the law "inoperative, and requires the omission of certain words from the drawback statute," the government claimed (Spirit Aerosystems v. United States, CIT # 20-00094).
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's zero percent rate for non-individually examined companies in the fifth remand redetermination of the antidumping duty investigation of hardwood plywood products from China. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves in an Oct. 10 opinion sustained Commerce's separate rate along with its decisions to exclude Dehua TB and Jiangyang Wood from, and to include Sanfortune Wood and Longyuan Wood within, the order. Commerce ultimately decided on the zero rate under protest after Choe-Groves disallowed the use of a 57.36% rate, calculated using only de minimus and AFA rates (see 2303170047).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 4 order granted a consent motion to remove antidumping duty respondent Saffron Living Co. from a case on the AD investigation on mattresses from Thailand. Per the motion to remove, Saffron said it withdrew from participation in the underlying AD investigation and "has thus concluded that continued participation in this appeal is no longer in its commercial interests" (Brooklyn Bedding. et al. v. United States, CIT # 21-00285).