CBP adhered to the Court of International Trade's order by complying with the requirement to provide public summaries of confidential information in an Enforce and Protect Act case and reviewing the entire record transmitted from one offce of CBP to another, the government argued in a Feb. 2 reply brief. Responding to arguments from the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee over the use of public summaries to protect certain confidential information, the U.S. said that neither the EAPA statute, CBP's regulations nor the court's remand order permits or requires CBP to make "substantive" confidential information public (Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee v. United States, CIT # 21-00129).
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 2 order remanded the Commerce Department's final results in the second administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, pursuant to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's mandate in the case (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. United States, CIT # 19-00069).
Conservation groups Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society moved to toss one count of their complaint in a case seeking an import ban on certain fish taken from New Zealand's West coast North Island multispecies set-net and trawl fisheries. The plaintiffs filed a partial motion to dismiss at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 2, arguing that the third count of the complaint, which is a challenge to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2020 comparability findings on this area in New Zealand's waters, is moot since the findings expired at the end of 2022 (Sea Shepherd New Zealand v. United States, CIT #20-00112).
The Commerce Department's recent remand decision not to treat a countervailing duty respondent's supplier as a cross-owned input supplier is relevant for exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret's case at the Court of International Trade, the exporter argued. Filing a notice of supplemental authority on Feb. 2, Kaptan said that Commerce's remand decision in Nucor Corp. v. U.S. is "at odds with Commerce's analysis in the instant case" (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT # 21-00565).
Turkish exporter Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari in a Feb. 2 brief at the Court of International Trade railed against U.S. Steel's bid to intervene in a case challenging the International Trade Commission's decision not to review an antidumping injury proceeding. The exporter said that U.S. Steel Corp. filed for intervention under the wrong legal standard since the case was established under Section 1581(i), the trade court's "residual" jurisdiction, and not Section 1581(c). Even if this point were irrelevant, Erdemir said the court should still prevent U.S. Steel (USSC) from intervening in the case since it was not a proper party to the underlying proceeding (Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari v. United States, CIT # 22-00349).
The U.S. and the Wind Tower Trade Coalition failed to show that the Commerce Department's findings in a countervailing duty case on wind towers from Canada were supported by substantial evidence, plaintiff-appellants Quebec and Canada and respondent Marmen Energie argued in a Feb. 1 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Quebec v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-1807).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Plaintiffs in an antidumping duty case, led by Catfish Farmers of America (CFA), failed to argue one count of its complaint in its opening brief, so the Court of International Trade should consider the issue abandoned, defendant-intervenor Nam Viet Corp. argued in a Feb. 1 opposition brief (Catfish Farmers of America, et al. v. United States, CIT # 22-00125).
The Commerce Department stuck by its decision not to investigate the alleged off-peak sale of electricity for less than adequate remuneration and not to treat POSCO Plantec -- an affiliate of countervailing duty respondent POSCO -- as a cross-owned input supplier of POSCO. Submitting its remand results to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 31, Commerce said that the subsidy allegation over the provision of off-peak electricity "did not provide sufficient evidence of a benefit for Commerce to initiate on the allegation," and that the inputs provided by POSCO Planted were not mainly dedicated to downstream product production (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT # 21-00182).
The Court of International Trade upheld CBP's affirmative evasion finding in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation against Leco Supply, in a confidential Jan. 24 opinion made public Feb. 1. Judge Mark Barnett held that CBP legally initiated the investigation, backed the evasion decision with substantial evidence, properly rejected Leco's written arguments during remand as untimely and protected the plaintiff's due process rights.