The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department failed to support its finding that the provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration conferred a non-measurable benefit in a countervailing duty proceeding involving goods from South Korea, CVD petitioner Nucor Corp. argued in a Feb. 3 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Nucor also railed against Commerce's decision not to conduct verification of the South Korean government's questionnaire responses (Nucor Corp. v. U.S., CIT #23-00003).
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 6 order denied defendant-intervenor Endura Products' motion for a stay of proceedings in an Enforce and Protect Act case brought by Columbia Aluminum Products, pending the resolution of a scope proceeding at the trade court. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that the stay motion failed to show that it would serve the twin objectives of "fairness to the litigants and judicial economy."
A protest of a CBP decision must be filed within 180 days of liquidation and not the date the Commerce Department issues antidumping and countervailing duty instructions to CBP or the date CBP denies an importer's refund request, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held in a Feb. 6 opinion. Upholding a Court of International Trade decision, judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Taranto and Todd Hughes dismissed a case from importer Acquisition 362, doing business as Strategic Import Supply, that challenges a CBP assessment of countervailing duties, on the grounds that the company failed to file a protest.
Antidumping duty respondent Octal moved to dismiss its challenge of the Commerce Department's decision to find that the company was affiliated with one of its U.S. customers, among other things. On Feb. 1, Commerce released its final determination in the underlying AD investigation terminating the order, leading Octal to petition to dismiss the case (Octal v. U.S., CIT # 20-03697).
The U.S. said that negotiations between it and importer Root Sciences over whether the company's imports should be seized as "drug paraphernalia" have "achieved substantial progress." Filing for its fifth extension of time over its reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. said that it and Root have been discussing how to settle the matter ever since the importer's informal proposal for negotiations (Root Sciences v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1795).
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 3 order granted the Commerce Department's voluntary remand request to reconsider its decision to apply a cost-based particular market situation adjustment when calculating antidumping duty respondent Garg Tube Export's weighted-average dumping margin. The respondent consented to the motion in light of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's 2021 decision in Hyundai Steel Co. v. U.S., which found Commerce can't make a PMS adjustment to the sales-below-cost test (Garg Tube Export v. United States, CIT # 21-00169).
The Commerce Department defended its final results in an antidumping duty review in a Feb. 1 reply brief at the Court of International Trade, arguing, among other things, that Commerce did not illegally change its methodology when it decided to use third-country control number (CONNUM) costs. The agency also claimed that plaintiff Navneet Education misread Commerce's decision not to use third-party CONNUMs in a review on ripe olives from Spain when it argued that the ripe olives case affirmed agency practice (Navneet Education v. United States, CIT # 22-00132).
CBP adhered to the Court of International Trade's order by complying with the requirement to provide public summaries of confidential information in an Enforce and Protect Act case and reviewing the entire record transmitted from one offce of CBP to another, the government argued in a Feb. 2 reply brief. Responding to arguments from the Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee over the use of public summaries to protect certain confidential information, the U.S. said that neither the EAPA statute, CBP's regulations nor the court's remand order permits or requires CBP to make "substantive" confidential information public (Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Enforcement Committee v. United States, CIT # 21-00129).
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 2 order remanded the Commerce Department's final results in the second administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, pursuant to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's mandate in the case (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. United States, CIT # 19-00069).