The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department dropped its finding that a particular market situation affected inputs to oil country tubular goods from South Korea in remand results submitted on Oct. 24 to the Court of International Trade. Submitting the remand redetermination after a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling, Commerce did say that it still believes imports of low-priced Chinese steel could contribute to the existence of a PMS and that, based on the Federal Circuit's ruling, it could in the future defend a PMS finding solely on this ground. The result of the remand left the dumping margins unchanged (Nexteel Co. v. United States, CIT #18-00083).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 21 opinion let exporter Oman Fasteners stop paying cash deposits over its potential Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff liability in a case on the validity of the national security duties on "derivative" products. A previous court order let Oman Fasteners stop making duty deposits after reaching an agreement with the U.S. on the resumption of bonding. The U.S. said the company wasn't entitled to bonding since it had failed to abide by the arrangement. A three-judge panel ruled that the U.S. shall exclude Oman Fasteners from the need to post cash deposits for potential Section 232 liability until the U.S. can get another order from the court or Oman Fasteners voluntarily enters into an agreement that modifies the terms of the court's opinion.
The Commerce Department reasonably found that countervailing duty petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition's allegations that CVD respondent CS Wind Vietnam could potentially manipulate its CVD margin are unsupported, the U.S. argued in Oct. 21 comments on remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade. Aside from addressing WTTC's four alleged factors showing potential manipulation individually, the U.S. said that, when taken collectively, the factors still fail to show a potential for manipulation of the margin via CS Wind Vietnam's relationship with its Korean parent company (Wind Tower Trade Coalition v. United States, CIT #20-03692).
The Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d statistical test to carry out its differential pricing analysis in rooting out "masked" dumping violates "well-recognized statistical principles," plaintiff HiSteel Co. argued in an Oct. 17 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Commerce's assertions that certain statistical assumptions typically required of the d test are not relevant since it using the entire population of data and not just a sample "is mathematically dishonest," the brief said (HiSteel Co. v. United States, CIT #22-00142).
The Commerce Department properly hit antidumping duty respondent Shanghai Tainai Bearing with partial adverse facts available, saying Tainai should know how to collect factor of production information from its downstream suppliers, given that the agency was conducting the 33rd review of the AD order, the U.S. argued in an Oct. 20 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The government said Commerce legally deducted Section 301 duties from Tainai's U.S. price and capped Section 301 duty payments (Shanghai Tainai Bearing Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. #22-00038).
The Commerce Department must revisit its countervailing duty rate calculations for the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act and its finding that Germany's KAV program is de jure specific, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 12 opinion made public Oct. 20. However, Judge Claire Kelly upheld the remaining points of contention in the case brought by BGH Edelstahl Siegen. including whether Commerce properly initiated the CVD investigation, the finding that the administrative record is complete, and "the determination that the provisions of the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act, the EEG and KWKG Reduced Surcharge Programs, the ETS Additional Free Emissions Allowances, and the CO2 Compensation Program are countervailable subsidies."
It's legal for importer Keirton USA to enter marijuana-related drug paraphernalia into Washington state, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 20 opinion. Building on the trade court's similar Eteros decision, Judge Claire Kelly said Washington's repeal of past restrictions on marijuana-related drug paraphernalia constitutes an authorization of the manufacture, possession and distribution of these goods, so that importing these goods qualifies for the exemption under the Federal Mail Order Drug Paraphernalia Control Act of 1986. Kelly, like Judge Gary Katzmann in the Eteros decision, relied on the Supreme Court case Murphy v. NCAA to construe the definition of "authorization."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should not stay a case led by PrimeSource Building Products pending resolution of another action at the appellate court, the U.S. said in an Oct. 17 reply brief, arguing a stay is "based on nothing but pure speculation as to" PrimeSource's desired outcome of the separate matter. The "unjustifiable delay" that would stem from the stay would cause "inherent harm" to the government, so the stay should be denied, the U.S. said (PrimeSource Building Products Inc. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-2128).
A September Court of International Trade decision finding that the U.S. cannot seize or forfeit imports of federally deemed "drug paraphernalia" whose delivery, possession and manufacture were made legal in Washington state may not be as applicable to other states as certain importers would like, trade lawyers told Trade Law Daily. Since the opinion rests heavily on the precise language of the Washington state law legalizing marijuana, the trade court's ruling will only make the most difference in states with a similar law, one attorney said.