The U.S. and importer Root Sciences struck a settlement in a case on whether Root's cannabis crude extract recovery machine imports should be seized as "drug paraphernalia," the importer said in a March 7 brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Under the settlement, CBP will release the merchandise to the plaintiff and Root will end its suit, according to the consent motion to voluntarily dismiss the appeal (Root Sciences v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1795).
CBP legally initiated an Enforce and Protect Act case on Columbia Aluminum Products' door thresholds even though they had been ruled exempt from antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, in a Commerce Department scope ruling upheld by the Court of International Trade (see 2212190051), the government told the trade court in a March 7 brief. CBP said EAPA petitioner Endura Products' evasion allegations against the importer came before the CIT decision and were valid "at the time they were made," DOJ said (Columbia Aluminum Products v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00185).
The first ruling from the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration arrangement (MPIA), an alternative to the defunct Appellate Body, put on display the various new facets of the new MPIA, according to one of the arbitrators who is also a Geneva Graduate Institute law professor. The ruling involved Colombian antidumping duties on frozen fries from certain EU countries, with novelties including word and time limits, a prehearing conference, and an online recording of the hearing, Joost Pauwelyn said in a March 6 blog post.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department this week stuck by its decision in an antidumping duty review on welded line pipe from South Korea to include losses on suspended product lines as part of antidumping duty respondent Nexteel Co.'s general and administrative (G&A) expenses, instead of as the cost of goods sold (Nexteel Co. v. United States, CIT # 20-03898).
The report from the commerce secretary concluding a Section 232 investigation is not "purely advisory" and actually gives the president a new power to regulate trade, so it "must be subject to judicial review" under the Administrative Procedure Act, petitioners led by USP Holdings argued at the U.S. Supreme Court in a March 2 brief (USP Holdings v. United States, U.S.C. # 22-565).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 2 deferred a U.S. motion to dismiss an Enforce and Protect Act case to the merits panel assigned to the case. The government wanted the case tossed because all the entries at issue had been liquidated (Royal Brush Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1226).
The Court of International Trade should order the Commerce Department to treat Indonesia as being at the same level of economic development as Vietnam for the purposes of an antidumping surrogate country analysis, plaintiffs, led by Catfish Farmers of America, said in a proposed remand order at the trade court March 2. The remand order would alternatively have Commerce "provide adequate explanation and support for declining to" treat Indonesia at the same level as Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. U.S., CIT # 20-00105).
The Court of International Trade on March 3 upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty case that slashed the dumping margin for respondent Ajmal Steel Tubes & Pipe Industries after the agency accepted the company's answers to the Section A quesitonnaire response. CIT's order came after neither Ajmal nor AD petitioner Wheatland Tube submitted comments on the remand.