The Commerce Department must consider evidence on remand regarding the control antidumping duty respondent Shanghai Tainai could have exerted over its suppliers before the agency hits the company with partial adverse facts available, the Court of International Trade ruled. Issuing the Sept. 14 opinion in a case on the 2019-20 review of the AD order on tapered roller bearings from China, Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce failed to consider the factors set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in using AFA on a fully cooperative respondent that "lacks the ability to control its suppliers."
The U.S. should push World Trade Organization members to "revisit what constitutes good and bad subsidies," which may help encourage transparency and improve "enforcement through incentives for compliance and penalties for noncompliance," the Council on Foreign Relations said in a new report.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade isn't "statutorily barred from granting" importer PrimeSource Building Products' request for a court order stopping CBP from collecting Section 232 steel and aluminum duties from the importer, PrimeSource said in a Sept. 12 reply brief. Addressing the government's claim that the trade court lacks the authority to grant the partial stay, the importer said the request, which seeks a stay pending the U.S. Supreme Court's resolution of the case challenging the expansion of Section 232 duties to cover "derivative" products, seeks relief from CIT and not the appellate court (PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S., CIT # 20-00032).
The Commerce Department illegally assigned adverse facts available to Vietnamese hardwood plywood producers for alleged "deficiencies, inconsistencies and/or contradictions in their responses," as part of an antidumping and countervailing duty anti-circumvention proceeding, importer USPLY said in a Sept. 13 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Commerce failed to tell the Vietnamese producers of these supposed consistencies or give them an opportunity to rebut them, the importer argued (USPLY v. United States, CIT # 23-0156).
Zulaika Mayfield of San Francisco filed a class-action lawsuit against aluminum foil maker Reynolds Consumer Products accusing the company of falsely claiming its goods are "Made in U.S.A." Filing suit at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Mayfield said Reynolds' false representations violate California's Unfair Competition Law, False Advertising Law and Consumer Legal Remedies Act (Zulaika Mayfield v. Reynolds Consumer Products, N.D. Cal. # 3:23-04587).
The International Trade Commission's decision to find that freight rail couplers from China and Mexico injured the domestic industry was not backed by substantial evidence, given its finding in a separate, previously conducted investigation that the couplers just from China did not injure the U.S. industry, importer Wabtec Corp. argued in a Sept. 13 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Wabtec Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00157).
The World Trade Organization touted new evidence of how "more inclusive [economic] integration" can benefit the friction points of security interests, inclusiveness and environmental policies in the face of early signs of global trade fragmentation. In its World Trade Report 2023, released Sept. 12, the WTO focuses on globalization and how, despite current challenges, international trade is thriving and stands as a solution to many global issues.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote on two nominations to the Court of International Trade during its Sept. 14 executive business meeting. The two nominees are Lisa Wang, assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance at the Commerce Department, and Joseph Laroski, partner at Schagrin Associates. The pair faced questioning from the committee in July, where the senators asked about their backgrounds and how their past experiences will shape their decision-making (see 2307270043).
The Court of International Trade lacks jurisdiction to hear importer Greentech Energy Solution's claims challenging CBP's decision to assess antidumping and countervailing duties on its 2019 imports of solar modules from Vietnam, the U.S. said in a Sept. 7 motion to dismiss. The "protest procedure" at CIT and "judicial review" under Section 1581(a) are not "manifestly inadequate" to review Greentech's claims, barring review under Section 1581(i), the government said (Greentech Energy Solutions v. United States, CIT # 23-00118).