The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 3 order assigned a case challenging the results of the Commerce Department's antidumping duty investigation on preserved mushrooms from the Netherlands to Judge M. Miller Baker. Petitioner Giorgio Foods filed the suit in June claiming that Commerce illegally picked Germany as the third-country comparison market since none of the reasons the agency gave for picking the nation were supported by substantial evidence (see 2307240018). The result of the investigation was a de minimis rate for respondent Prochamp and the company's exclusion from the AD order (Giorgio Foods v. U.S., CIT # 23-00133).
Importer Eteng Technologies Aug. 2 moved to dismiss its customs suit at the Court of International Trade related to its shipments of backpacking tents. The company challenged CBP's classification of the tents under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 6302.22.90, dutiable at 8.8%, claiming that they should be classified under subheading 6306.22.10, free of duty. John Peterson, counsel for Eteng, said in an email that he realized the duties were not paid before the case was filed, which would have led the suit being tossed for lack of jurisdiction (Eteng Technologies v. United States, CIT # 22-00167).
The Commerce Department did not satisfy its statutory obligations to tell antidumping duty respondents their submissions were deficient ahead of granting constructed export price adjustments, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Aug. 3 opinion. Remanding the 2019-20 review of the AD order on circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from South Korea, Judge Timothy Reif said the agency should provide the mandatory respondents with notice of their deficiencies and give them a chance to explain them.
The Court of International Trade improperly dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a $5.7 million customs penalty suit against importer Katana Racing, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in an Aug. 3 opinion. While the trade court said Katana properly revoked a statute of limitations waiver making the U.S. government's suit untimely, Judges Sharon Prost, Alvin Schall and Todd Hughes said the statute of limitations "is not a jurisdictional time limit." Instead, it provides an "affirmative defense" that can be waived.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit officially issued its order vacating and remanding the Court of International Trade's opinion upholding CBP's evasion finding for importer Royal Brush Manufacturing. The Aug. 1 order came a few days after the court's consequential opinion, which said CBP violated Royal Brush's due process rights by not giving it access to confidential information in the Enforce and Protect Act investigation into the company (see 2307270038). The order remands the antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case so the agency can make the whole record available to the importer (Royal Brush Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1226).
The U.S. will appeal a June Court of International Trade opinion upholding the Commerce Department's remand results in a suit on the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. The remand results dropped the presumption the Chinese government controlled exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. after the trade court questioned whether Commerce could disregard a mandatory respondent's own data in favor of the countrywide nonmarket economy rate (see 2305040061).
The Maritime Administration illegally approved the Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), which would be the largest offshore oil export terminal in the U.S., by not conducting analysis on "critical environmental harms and Congressional licensing requirements," conservation groups led by Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water argued in a reply brief. Responding to arguments made by the Department of Transportation in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the conservation groups said the agency's request for deference in the case evades its "legal failings" (Citizens for Clean Air & Clean Water in Brazoria County v. U.S. Department of Transportation, 5th Cir. # 23-60027).
No explanation could make the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test, used to root out "masked" dumping, reasonable, the Canadian government and eight Canadian exporters argued in a proposed amicus brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Seeking to tack their arguments onto the case in which the appellate court originally questioned the agency's use of the test, the amici said that Commerce is not using the d test "in any coherent sense" (Stupp Corp. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1663).
Former CBP attorney Coraly Schreiber joined trade boutique firm Yormick Law as of counsel, Jon Yormick, the firm's founder, confirmed in an email. Schreiber most recently served as managing attorney at Diaz Trade Law in Miami, and before that worked for 19 years at CBP, including a one-year stint as branch chief for the Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures Division, according to her LinkedIn page,
The U.S. asked for more time to file its reply to importer PrimeSource's writ of certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court in its case challenging President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties onto "derivative" products. The government asked for another month, until Sept. 25, to complete its brief, explaining its response was delayed due to the "heavy press of earlier assigned cases to the attorneys handling this matter." The brief is due Aug. 24.