The Commerce Department "explicitly mischaracterized record evidence" when it said countervailing duty respondent Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co.'s (GRT's) only U.S. customer didn't certify that it had not used China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the respondent argued in a Feb. 17 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Commerce also failed to properly use adverse facts available over the EBCP, since the agency is required to find whether any information on the record could fill the gap that renders AFA unnecessary, but did not, the motion said (Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co., Ltd., v. United States, CIT # 22-00229).
A horizontal lawnmower engine should be excluded from the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc from China, given the plain language of the orders' scope excludes horizontal engines, exporter Zhejiang Amerisun Technology Co. argued in a Feb. 21 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Zhejiang Amerisun Technology Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00011).
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 23 order denied antidumping respondent SeAH Steel's request for reconsideration of the court's opinion upholding the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test as part of its differential pricing analysis. SeAH said the case should be reconsidered given the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's opinion in Stupp v. U.S. calling into question the use of the test, which is used to root out "masked" dumping. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled the use of an entire population of data rather than just a sample "sufficiently negates" the questions raised in Stupp.
The question of whether the Commerce Department has the statutory authority to conduct expedited reviews in countervailing duty investigations constitutes a "major question" that requires explicit delegation from Congress as established in the Supreme Court's West Virginia v. EPA decision, the Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations said in a supplemental brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 22 (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-1021).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Alternative characteristics used by the Commerce Department that were supplied by antidumping duty respondent LG Chem to set control numbers (CONNUMs) in an AD investigation had no relationship to actual prices and costs, and are distortive and create the potential for manipulation, AD petitioner The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers said in a Feb. 17 complaint at the Court of International Trade (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).
Plaintiff Risen Energy Co. will appeal a December 2022 Court of International Trade opinion involving the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China. Per a Feb. 21 notice, Risen will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the proceeding, the trade court upheld Commerce's surrogate value picks for silver paste, a solar cell input, backsheet and ethyl vinyl acetate and its decision to use partial neutral facts available instead of adverse facts available (see 2301050026) (Risen Energy Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT # 20-03743).
A Commerce remand determination on welded carbon steel pipes and tubes should be upheld by the Court of International Trade despite a separate Commerce remand redetermination that dual-stenciled pipe and tube is not covered by an antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes, the government argued in a brief filed Feb. 17 (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company, Limited v. United States, CIT # 21-00627).
"Post hoc" arguments from the Commerce Department and BlueScope Steel that the Australian exporter's deduction of antidumping duties from a transfer price was not a reimbursement of antidumping duties are contradicted by documents that confirm a deduction of the duties from the price BlueScope Steel charged to an affiliated importer, plaintiff-appellant U.S. Steel Corp. argued in a Feb. 17 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (U.S. Steel Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2078).
The Commerce Department illegally reversed its initial decision that lemon juice exporter Louis Dreyfus Co. was not affiliated with its primary fresh lemon supplier on the grounds that the company had no close supplier relationship with the lemon grower, U.S. company Ventura Coastal argued in a Feb. 16 complaint at the Court of International Trade. In the complaint, Ventura also railed against Commerce's decision to exclude certain administrative expenses pertaining to services provided by Louis Dreyfus' parent company or affiliated holding companies from the exporter's general and administrative expense rate calculation (Ventura Coastal v. United States, CIT # 23-00009).