CBP's Office of Regulations & Rulings correctly overturned the Trade Remedy & Law Enforcement Directorate's (TRLED) evasion finding against Dominican company Kingtom Aluminio in an Enforce and Protect Act administrative review, Kingtom said in an Aug. 23 brief at the Court of International Trade. Kingtom is intervening in a suit by the Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee (AEFTC), which seeks to overturn CBP's final determination of no evasion (Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee v. U.S., CIT # 22-00236).
The Commerce Department revised its surrogate manufacturing overhead ratio and its surrogate hourly labor rate on remand at the Court of International Trade as part of a suit on the 2017-18 review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. Per the remand results, submitted on Aug. 24, Commerce raised the dumping rate for respondent Fusong Jinglong Wooden Group Co. from zero to 2.05%, while keeping the 0% rate for Jiangsu Guyu International Trading Co. The rate for the non-individually examined companies also rose to 2.05% (American Manufacturers of Multilayered Wood Flooring v. United States, CIT # 20-03948).
The Commerce Department didn't properly select Brazil as the primary surrogate nation in an antidumping review while also using Malaysian data for respondent Senmao's log inputs, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Aug. 24 opinion. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said that in the 2019-20 AD review of multilayered wood flooring from China, Commerce failed to point to any record evidence it used in ditching Brazil's data for Malaysia's.
The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 25 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on woven ribbons from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu said the agency did not support its use of adverse facts available against exporter Yama Ribbons and Bows Co.'s alleged use of the Export Buyer's Credit Program. The judge ruled that Commerce's use of AFA was "critically flawed" since it was based on "missing" information the agency never requested from the Chinese government, adding information from the Chinese state and Yama is sufficient to refute any finding that Yama could have benefited from the program. Stanceu also remanded Commerce's finding that Yama benefited from the provision of synthetic yarn and caustic soda for less than adequate remuneration, per the agency's request, since Commerce forgot to add the document it based its finding on to the record.
No lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade.
CBP's attempts to collect a 14-year-old bond for antidumping duties on Chinese garlic may be affected by the Court of International Trade's ruling in a similar case, defendant Aegis Security said in a notice of supplemental authority. CIT Judge Richard Eaton ruled on Aug. 22 that the statute of limitations for CBP to collect on customs bonds runs six years from the date of the underlying liquidation rather than from the date that CBP demanded payment (see 2308220054). Though Aegis notes that CIT judges are not bound by the decisions of other judges on the court, the company has been arguing for a similar result (see 2210270054).
Exporter Tenaris Bay City's "only hope" in its case against the International Trade Commission's injury finding for oil country tubular goods from Argentina and Mexico is for the Court of International Trade to "reweigh the evidence," though this is barred by the "statutory standard of review," petitioners led by U.S. Steel Corp. argued. Replying to Tenaris' motion for judgment, the petitioners said that "[e]xtensive evidence confirmed that subject imports materially injured the domestic industry," and that the ITC permissibly cumulated imports from Russia in the analysis (Tenaris Bay City v. United States, CIT Consol. # 22-00344).
CBP's admission that imported desk pad and planning calendars meet the dictionary definition of "calendar" is evidence that the items should have been so classified as a calendar under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. subheading 4910.00.2000 instead of the basket provision for other paper products in subheading 4820.10.4000, importer Blue Sky said in a motion for judgment filed Aug. 23 at the Court of International Trade. Blue Sky is attempting to overturn CBP's classification of four models of Blue Sky's weekly and monthly planning calendars. While both classifications are duty-free, the government's preferred classification carries additional Section 301 duties (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., CIT # 21-00624).
The Commerce Department unnecessarily backed off of its use of adverse facts and erred in a dumping margin calculation on imported steel nails from Oman in an antidumping duty review, domestic producer and defendant-intervenor Mid Continent Steel & Wire said in remand comments filed Aug. 23. Mid Continent is contesting the July 17 remand results, in which Commerce reversed its imposition of total adverse facts available on Oman Fasteners and completely removed the 154.33% AD rate for the company (see 2307170036) (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., CIT # 22-00348).
The Commerce Department failed to adequately support its position on remand to not treat ship building company Nur Gemicilik ve Tic, an affiliate of countervailing duty respondent Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret, as a cross-owned input supplier of goods primarily dedicated to the production of downstream products, CVD petitioner Rebar Trade Action Coalition said (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT # 21-00565).