The U.S. asked for a voluntary remand at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Enforce and Protect Act case to discuss the legal effects of the Royal Brush Manufacturing v. U.S. decision. In Royal Brush, the appellate court said CBP violated an EAPA respondent's due process rights by not granting it access to the business confidential information in the proceeding (see 2307270038). Importer Skyview Cabinet USA consented to the motion, while the petitioner, MasterBrand Cabinets, took no position (Skyview Cabinet USA v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-2318).
A SpaceX lawsuit challenging an export control-related hiring discrimination case against the company would succeed if not for a "late-breaking development" in the form of an interim final rule imposed "seemingly in direct response" to SpaceX's preliminary injunction motion, the company argued. SpaceX said that even the government admits that it would lose the case without the interim final rule, which SpaceX told a federal district court in Brownsville, Texas, is illegal (Space Exploration Technologies v. Carol Bell, S.D. Tex. # 23-00137).
CBP failed to apply an Office of the U.S. Trade Representative-granted Section 301 exclusion for "flexible pressure sensitive LCD display devices used as a surface for electronic wiring" to importer Kent Displays' merchandise, the importer told the Court of International Trade in an Oct. 27 motion for summary judgment. Kent argued that its Model WT16312 Dashboard is the type of device as described by the exclusion and, as such, should be free of the 25% Section 301 duties under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 9013.80.7000 (Kent Displays v. United States, CIT # 20-00156).
A World Trade Organization panel will review U.S. antidumping duties on oil country tubular goods from Argentina after Argentina's request for a dispute panel was granted by the Dispute Settlement Body, the WTO announced. Argentina's request was the second in its case arguing that the duties violate WTO rules and that the U.S. illegally cumulated imports in assessing injury caused by the subject imports.
World Trade Organization members discussed a host of new proposals on agriculture topics during Oct. 19-20 agriculture negotiation meetings, including on export restrictions, domestic support, food security and food bought at minimum prices for public stocks, the WTO said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Oct. 26 order granted a two-week extension for exporter Tau-Ken Temir and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Trade and Integration to file their reply brief in a case on the countervailing duty investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan. TKT and the trade ministry recently also asked the court for an additional 7,000 words in the reply brief, prompting the court to stay briefing until it can resolve the motion for the expanded word count (Tau-Ken Temir v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 25 text-only order denied as moot the renewed motion by the U.S. to stay proceedings in an Enforce and Protect Act case, pending final resolution of a related matter. The present case, Far East American v. U.S., concerns an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion determination on two-ply hardwood products from China. The government asked for a stay while another case brought by Far East American went through the trade court. CIT ruled on that one in August, finding that the Commerce Department properly excluded hardwood plywood made by Vietnam Finewood using two-ply panels imported into Vietnam from China from the scope of the orders (see 2308220033). The stay in Far East American's second case was dropped following the ruling (Far East American v. U.S., CIT # 22-00213).
The proceeding against U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman has "violated the basic norms of due process of law and are inconsistent with constitutional protections" for federal judges, Newman argued in a reply to a motion to dismiss from Judges Kimberly Moore, Sharon Prost and Richard Taranto -- the trio who investigated Newman. Fighting off the dismissal bid in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the 96-year old Newman said the three judges' actions, which amounted to a one-year suspension for Newman, "were designed to accomplish a preordained result, whether legal or not" (The Hon. Pauline Newman v. The Hon. Kimberly A. Moore, D.D.C. # 23-01334).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 24 order granted the U.S. motion to enter an amended protective order in Chinese printer cartridge maker Ninestar Corp.'s case against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. The order dismissed Ninestar's motion to compel the unredacted administrative record as moot, while clarifying that the order was issued "without prejudice to the parties' rights to petition the court to further modify the terms of the APO" or their right to challenge the designation of materials as confidential under the APO (Ninestar Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00182).
The Commerce Department, on remand at the Court of International Trade, switched to using Brazilian surrogate value information to value antidumping duty respondent Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co.'s non-oak log inputs. Changing course as part of the 2019-20 AD review of multilayered wood flooring from China, Commerce switched to using Brazilian data, the primary surrogate nation, after the trade court rejected its initial use of Malaysian data for the factors of production (Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00190).