The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld CBP's decision not to grant credit to customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae of Elkhorn, Nebraska, for two questions on the April 2018 exam. Judges Pauline Newman, Sharon Prost and Todd Hughes granted Chae credit for one of three questions he challenged, but that was insufficient to bring him up to the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.
The Commerce Department has the statutory authority to conduct expedited countervailing duty reviews, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held April 25. Reversing a Court of International Trade ruling overturning the agency's authority to carry out such reviews, Judges Timothy Dyk, Jimmie Reyna and Richard Taranto said the legal ground for the review process is found in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act's enactment of certain provisions that favor individual company determinations and the URAA's "grant of regulatory-implementation power to Commerce."
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Appellants Sigma Corp. and Smith-Cooper International rely too much on industry jargon to argue Vandewater International's steel branch outlets are not butt-welded and aren't subject to the antidumping duty order on butt-weld pipe fittings from China, the U.S. argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The government said that "a wide array of record evidence contradicts" Sigma and SCI's "core" claim that the term "butt-weld" has a single, unambiguous meaning excluding welded outlets from the scope (Vandewater International v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1093).
The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's refusal to adjust its threshold for differentiating between types of pasta in its duty calculations in the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on pasta from Italy. Respondent La Molisana had argued the agency's "breakpoint" of 12.5% protein content did not reflect the market reality, saying the true point separating premium from regular pasta was 13.5% protein content. In his April 24 opinion, Judge Richard Eaton said the company's evidence, while unrebutted, was not applicable industrywide, making it "unreliable and insufficient."
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman retained the New Civil Liberties Alliance as counsel in the investigation of her ability to continue serving on the court. The alliance wrote a letter to Chief Judge Kimberly Moore, the judge who brought the case against Newman, requesting that the proceeding be transferred to another circuit and that Newman be fully restored to the court's calendar.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
There is "absolutely no substantive justification" to give the Commerce Department another 91 days to review NLMK Pennsylvania's Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests, the company argued in an April 20 brief opposing the extension bid at the Court of International Trade (NLMK Pennsylvania v. United States, CIT # 21-00507).
The Commerce Department wrongly said there was ambiguity in the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China, the Court of International Trade ruled. Judge Mark Barnett, remanding Commerce's scope ruling, said the scope language and the (k)(1) sources confirm the "unambiguous" meaning of the orders' scope, which excludes two-ply panels imported from China to Vietnam.
The Court of International Trade upheld parts and sent back parts of a countervailing duty case brought by Dalian Meisen Woodworking in a confidential opinion. In a letter to litigants, Judge Richard Eaton gave the parties until April 27 to inform the court what should remain confidential. The trade court previously remanded the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available related to China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, telling the agency it must "find a practical solution" to verify information from respondents' U.S. customers showing that they did not use the EBCP (see 2205230033) (Dalian Meisen Woodworking v. U.S., Slip Op. 23-57, CIT # 20-00110).