Plaintiff-intervenor Sigma will appeal a September Court of International Trade ruling finding that the Commerce Department properly included Vandewater International's steel branch outlets in the scope of the antidumping duty order on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China. In an Oct. 21 notice of appeal, Sigma said it would take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, Judge Leo Gordon said that while the plaintiffs, led by Vandewater, showed information on the record could back a finding that their outlets could be excluded from the scope of the order, he could not agree that Commerce acted unreasonably in reaching the opposing conclusion using each of the (k)(2) factors (see 2209080056) (Vandewater International Inc. v. United States, CIT #18-00199).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 21 order granted a consent motion to stay in a case brought by Waaree Energies and ISS Global Forwarding Texas challenging CBP's collection of excess safeguard duties on solar cell imports, given CIT's order finding unlawful the revocation of a tariff exclusion for bifacial solar panels (Waaree Energies v. United States, CIT #22-00296). The case is stayed pending resolution of Solar Energy Industries Association, et al. v. United States at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the SEIA case, the trade court found the proclamation revoking the bifacial solar panel tariff exclusion to be illegal since the law permits only trade liberalizing alterations to the existing safeguard measures (see 2111160032). The appeal is proceeding at the Federal Circuit.
The Commerce Department reasonably found that countervailing duty petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition's allegations that CVD respondent CS Wind Vietnam could potentially manipulate its CVD margin are unsupported, the U.S. argued in Oct. 21 comments on remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade. Aside from addressing WTTC's four alleged factors showing potential manipulation individually, the U.S. said that, when taken collectively, the factors still fail to show a potential for manipulation of the margin via CS Wind Vietnam's relationship with its Korean parent company (Wind Tower Trade Coalition v. United States, CIT #20-03692).
The Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d statistical test to carry out its differential pricing analysis in rooting out "masked" dumping violates "well-recognized statistical principles," plaintiff HiSteel Co. argued in an Oct. 17 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Commerce's assertions that certain statistical assumptions typically required of the d test are not relevant since it using the entire population of data and not just a sample "is mathematically dishonest," the brief said (HiSteel Co. v. United States, CIT #22-00142).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 24 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's second remand results in a case brought by Garg Tube Export and Garb Tube Limited on the 2017-2018 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on welded carbon steel standard pipes and tubes from India. Previously in the case, Judge Claire Kelly sent back Commerce's finding that a particular market situation existed in India for hot-rolled coil steel and its regression methodology applying a PMS adjustment. On remand and under "respectful protest," Commerce dropped the PMS finding and adjustment, leading Kelly to uphold the remand results.
The Commerce Department properly hit antidumping duty respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing with partial adverse facts available, saying Tainai should know how to collect factor of production information from its downstream suppliers, given that the agency was conducting the 33rd review of the AD order, the U.S. argued in an Oct. 20 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The government said Commerce legally deducted Section 301 duties from Tainai's U.S. price and capped Section 301 duty payments (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. #22-00038).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 21 opinion ruled in a dispute over whether exporter Oman Fasteners should post bond or cash deposits to secure payment of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties in a case on the validity of the national security tariffs. A previous court order let Oman Fasteners stop making duty deposits after reaching an agreement with the U.S. on the resumption of bonding. The U.S. said that the company wasn't entitled to bonding since it had failed to abide by the arrangement. A three-judge panel ruled that the U.S. shall exclude Oman Fasteners from the need to post cash deposits for potential Section 232 liability until the U.S. can get another order from the court or Oman Fasteners voluntarily enters into an agreement that modifies the terms of the court's opinion.
Daniel Pickard, partner at Buchanan Ingersoll, was silent at an Oct. 19 preliminary conference at the International Trade Commission over allegations from Amsted Rail Co. (ARC), his former client while working at Wiley Rein, that he violated certain ethical considerations. ARC took to both the ITC and the Court of International Trade to argue that Pickard betrayed the company by releasing its business proprietary information to attorneys and non-attorney staff at his new firm, Buchanan, since he now represents parties with adverse interests to ARC (see 2210170084). ARC raised the issue right off the bat at the preliminary conference, but Pickard did not address the allegations, only carrying on with arguments pertaining to proving that imports of freight rail couplers and their parts from China and Mexico injured the domestic industry.
Court of International Trade Court Judge Gary S. Katzmann on Oct. 20 granted a motion to stay penalties for 30 days in a case concerning imported drug paraphernalia. Katzmann ruled against the government in a Sept. 21 opinion (see 2209210034).
The Commerce Department must revisit its countervailing duty rate calculations for the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act and its finding that Germany's KAV program is de jure specific, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 12 opinion made public Oct. 20. However, Judge Claire Kelly upheld the remaining points of contention in the case brought by BGH Edelstahl Siegen. including whether Commerce properly initiated the CVD investigation, the finding that the administrative record is complete, and "the determination that the provisions of the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act, the EEG and KWKG Reduced Surcharge Programs, the ETS Additional Free Emissions Allowances, and the CO2 Compensation Program are countervailable subsidies."