A rehearing of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in PrimeSource Building Products v. U.S., upholding President Donald Trump's decision to expand Section 232 duties on "derivatives" of steel and aluminum products, is "unwarranted," the U.S. argued in a reply brief. While the petitioners, led by PrimeSource, continue to "demur," the U.S. said that the Federal Circuit's decision is "consistent with" Supreme Court and past Federal Circuit decisions, namely Transpacific Steel v. U.S., in which the court said that the president can take action beyond the procedural time limits set in the statute as long as it comports with the original duties' plan of action (PrimeSource Building Products v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 21-2066).
The Court of International Trade on June 7 upheld the Commerce Department's classification of the surrogate values for aluminum ash byproduct and rolling oil inputs in the first antidumping duty administrative review on aluminum foil from China, as well as the agency's decision to use Maersk data to calculate surrogate freight costs and its refusal to grant respondent Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co. a double remedies adjustment for input subsidies the respondent said were countervailable.
Bret Vallacher, a former trial attorney at DOJ, moved to the Washington, D.C., office of Massey & Gail in May, Vallacher confirmed with Trade Law Daily. Vallacher's practice will center on a wide range of issues including "contract, employment, securities, antitrust, theft of trade secrets, trademark, deceptive trade practices, false advertising, fraud, defamation, election law, and constitutional takings," the firm said. The attorney, who helped litigate AD/CVD and customs cases at DOJ, said that the case that brought him to join Massey & Gail is the suit by cancer victims against Johnson & Johnson claiming that the company's talcum-based baby powder caused ovarian cancer. Vallacher told TLD he is working on the case.
The Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit voted to exclude Judge Pauline Newman from being assigned new cases amid a probe into her fitness to continue serving as a judge on the influential patent and trade court. The council said that Newman's backlog of opinions and significant delays in issuing opinions when they do come out warrants precluding the 95-year-old judge from presiding over any more cases.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department's new methodology for evaluating compliance with a 2019 antidumping duty suspension agreement's requirement to eliminate 85% of dumping has forced industry players to "bet their compliance" on "speculation and estimation," exporter International Greenhouse Produce (IGP) argued in a complaint at the Court of International Trade. The exporter added that Commerce also erred by "treating certain transactions involving U.S. brokers as U.S. sales," jettisoning the definition of "broker" seemingly settled in the 1960s (International Greenhouse Produce v. U.S., CIT # 23-00093).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. moved to swap its lead counsel in a countervailing duty case after Bret Vallacher, former head attorney in the suit on the CVD investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan, left DOJ. The U.S. said Vallacher "is no longer employed by" the department but was not able to withdraw as principal counsel before leaving. Brendan Jordan was put forward by the government as the next lead counsel. Both appellants, led by Tau-Ken Temir, and defendant-appellees, led by Globe Specialty Metals, consented to the swap (Tau-Ken Temir v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
A recent ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit regarding a statute-of-limitations waiver supports defendant-appellee Katana Racing's arguments in a customs penalty suit, Katana Racing said in a notice of supplemental authority at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the present case, the Court of International Trade tossed the government's suit seeking over $5.7 million in unpaid duties on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China on the grounds that the importer properly revoked its statute of limitations waiver, making the lawsuit untimely due to the expired statute of limitations (see 2203280047) (United States v. Katana Racing, Fed. Cir. # 22-1832).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, during June 6 oral arguments, questioned countervailing duty petitioner Nucor Corp.'s claims against the Commerce Department's finding that the South Korean government did not provide a countervailable subsidy via its provision of electricity in the CVD investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Responding to Nucor's argument that Commerce should have found the actual cost of electricity sold to the CVD respondents, Judge Raymond Chen said this "seems so unrealistically granular it doesn't make any sense" (POSCO v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1525).