Tire exporter Guizhou Tyre Co. and Guizhou Tyre Import and Export Co. will appeal a Court of International Trade decision upholidng the Commerce Department's finding that Guizhou failed to rebut the presumption of government control in the antidumping duty investigation on truck and bus tires from China. Per the notice of appeal, the companies will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, the trade court said that despite Commerce's "inartful and internally-inconsistent approach" to answering whether a company majority-owned by a government entity could ever prove to be free of government control, the agency did enough here to show that Guizhou's largest shareholder was still run by the government (see 2305230060) (Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00031).
The Court of International Trade in a July 17 order denied importer Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West)'s motion for stay of enforcement of judgment pending appeal in a customs dispute on the classification of frozen fruit mixtures. Judge Stephen Vaden said that in light of the U.S. claim that it will "take no action to reliquidate the entries at issue" until the importer's appeal is resolved, the court dismisses the motion as moot (Nature's Touch Frozen Foods (West) v. U.S., CIT # 20-00131).
Australian exporter BlueScope Steel is asking the Court of International Trade to overturn the International Trade Commission's decision to cumulate imports from Australia with shipments from other countries in its sunset review of the AD orders on the steel goods from Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, Turkey and the U.K. (BlueScope Steel v. U.S., CIT # 22-00353).
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman will begin mediation at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia with three of her colleagues leading an investigation on her fitness to continue serving on the bench, on Aug. 3. Per a joint notice of continuation of deadline to file a report on mediation, the parties said that they set a date with Judge Thomas Griffith, who was appointed to preside over the mediation (see 2307110045). Griffith sat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2005 to 2020 (Newman v. Moore, D.D.C. # 23-01334).
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative exceeded its authority in imposing the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on China, covering a total of $320 billion worth of Chinese imports, plaintiff-appellants in the massive case against the duties, led by HTMX Industries and Jasco Products Co., argued in their opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Appealing the Court of International Trade's decision upholding the tariffs (see 2204010061), the companies said USTR did not have the authority to set the duties since the authority was not directly delegated by Congress, in violation of the "major questions doctrine" (HMTX Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1891).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Tire exporters Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus Tyre will appeal a Court of International Trade decision upholding the Commerce Department's decision to deny separate rate status to the companies as part of the seventh administrative review of the antidumping duty order on off-road tires from China. Per a pair of appeal notices, the companies will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the decision, the trade court said the agency properly used the China-wide AD rate of 105.31% on the companies after finding that the companies failed to rebut the presumption of government control (see 2305190026) (Guizhou Tyre v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 17-00100).
The Commerce Department "misapplied the statutory standard" for picking surrogate countries in the 2018-19 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam by excluding candidate countries that have a comparable level of economic development, the Court of International Trade ruled in a July 7 opinion made public July 17.
The EU July 14 asked the World Trade Organization to assess whether the U.S. has complied with a dispute panel report finding that U.S. countervailing duties on Spanish olives violated WTO commitments. The EU said the U.S. "has so far failed to comply with" the panel ruling and that the duties, which could shove Spanish olive exporters out of the American market, remain in place.
The EU General Court last week affirmed a European Commission decision that allowed German securities depository bank Clearstream Banking to comply with U.S. sanctions on Iran. The case stemmed from a commission decision in 2020 that authorized Clearstream to withhold payment of dividends to German firm IFIC Holding, whose shares are indirectly held by the Iranian government. IFIC had asked the General Court to annul the decision.