Tire exporters Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus Tyre will appeal a Court of International Trade decision upholding the Commerce Department's decision to deny separate rate status to the companies as part of the seventh administrative review of the antidumping duty order on off-road tires from China. Per a pair of appeal notices, the companies will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the decision, the trade court said the agency properly used the China-wide AD rate of 105.31% on the companies after finding that the companies failed to rebut the presumption of government control (see 2305190026) (Guizhou Tyre v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 17-00100).
The Commerce Department's use of alternative characteristics of superabsorbent polymers supplied by antidumping respondent LG Chem to set control numbers (CONNUMs) in an AD investigation should be remanded, The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers said in a July 14 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. The coalition said the department's use of unverified and unrequested alternative superabsorbent polymer characteristics contravened an established practice (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).
The Commerce Department reversed its imposition of total adverse facts available on antidumping duty respondent Oman Fasteners in its July 17 remand results, resulting in a complete removal of a 154.33% AD rate for the company, Oman Fasteners, Commerce had ruled had failed to cooperate to the best of its ability because it did not submit all of its responses to a supplemental questionnaire by the deadline. The single late submission missed Commerce's cut-off time by 16 minutes and Court of International Trade Judge M. Miller Baker said that the ensuing suit was "not a close case" when he remanded the results in a February opinion (see 2302280040) (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., CIT # 22-00348)..
The Commerce Department "misapplied the statutory standard" for picking surrogate countries in the 2018-19 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam by excluding candidate countries that have a comparable level of economic development, the Court of International Trade ruled in a July 7 opinion made public July 17.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
US, Conservation Groups File for Stay in Suit on NOAA Decision Pending NMFS NZ Comparability Finding
Conservation groups Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society filed a joint motion for stay of litigation with the government in a case challenging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2020 findings that New Zealand's standards for its West Coast North Island inshore trawl and set net fisheries were comparable with U.S. regulations (Sea Shepherd New Zealand, et al. v. United States, CIT # 20-00112).
The U.S. opposed a motion at the Court of International Trade from importer Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) seeking a stay of enforcement of judgment pending appeal in a customs spat on frozen fruit mixtures. The government said that a stay is "unnecessary and not contemplated by the law for this type of case" since Section 1581(a) of CIT's jurisdiction statute tells CBP "not to effectuate a judgment until it becomes final." Since the case is being appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the trade court's judgment is not final (Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) v. United States, CIT # 20-00131).
The Commerce Department ignored evidence against an objector's claim that it could provide domestic tin mill products to make up the shortfall when it denied Section 232 exclusion requests for tin mill products by Seneca Foods, the company continued to argue during July 11 oral arguments at the Court of International Trade (Seneca Foods Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00243).
The Commerce Department shouldn't have relied on adverse facts available in an antidumping duty review on tapered roller bearings from China for a fully cooperative entity that attempted to obtain information from its suppliers but couldn't secure their cooperation, Chinese bearing exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing said in a July 13 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Court precedent doesn't require a party to provide information not in its possession and which it can't reasonably obtain, the company said (Shanghai Tainai Bearing v. U.S., CIT # 23-00020).
The Court of International Trade on July 14 upheld the Commerce Department's decisions in an antidumping duty review to disregard respondent Nexteel's accounting method and classify the company's losses from suspension of production lines as general and administrative expenses (G&A) instead of costs of goods sold (COGS). Judge Claire Kelly said that Commerce, in the 2016-2017 administrative review on welded line pipe from South Korea, "adequately explains that the depreciation and other costs" linked with suspended production lines "are more akin to a company-wide cost" instead of a cost of manufacturing borne by specific products.