The Commerce Department can calculate the separate rate respondent's dumping margin by averaging an adverse facts available rate and a de minimis rate in an antidumping duty review, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said Jan. 10. Upholding the Court of International Trade's decision, the Federal Circuit said the separate rates in the past AD reviews trended upward, justifying the 41.025% dumping rate for the separate rate respondents.
The U.S.Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit shouldn't strike down President Donald Trump's extension of Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs onto "derivative" products made beyond procedural deadlines since the tariffs had a positive impact on the U.S. industry, The American Steel Nail Coalition said in Jan. 10 proposed amicus brief. The coalition asked the court for leave to file the amicus brief in a bid to broaden the defense of the president's tariff action. The proposed amicus further said that this issue has already been decided following the Federal Circuit's decision in the key case Transpacific Steel v. U.S. (PrimeSource Building Products v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-2066).
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.
The Commerce Department was wrong to allow an antidumping duty respondent's net hedging-related gains to offset its cost of manufacturing in an AD investigation, the Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group told the Court of International Trade in its Jan. 7 complaint. Commerce's finding that the respondent's hedging gains are "associated" with its purchases of aluminum is insufficient because the record also shows that the hedging contracts are associated with its sales of finished goods, the complaint said (The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group, et al. v. U.S., CIT #21-00618).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should uphold the Commerce Department's finding that Shelter Forest International Acquisition's hardwood plywood exports didn't circumvent the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China, Shelter Forest and others said in a response brief. Shelter Forest argued that the appellate court should uphold the Court of International Trade's ruling that Shelter Forest's plywood wasn't later-developed merchandise and the company wasn't guilty of evasion (Shelter Forest International Acquisition Inc. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #21-2281).
CBP initiated two antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigations on cast iron soil pipe fittings (CISPF) from China under suspicion that imports from certain companies were evading the orders by way of transshipment through Cambodia. The Cambodian-registered company Little Fireflies International was implicated in both of the investigations as the importer of record in each case but also as the source of the covered merchandise for another importer named in one of the investigations, Granite Plumbing. CBP imposed interim measures in both investigations after finding a reasonable suspicion that Little Fireflies and Granite Plumbing entered merchandise covered by the ADD/CVD orders through evasion.
CBP wants the Court of International Trade to grant its voluntary remand request to reconsider its final determination in an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion case. The U.S. said the remand would allow CBP to consider the issues raised by plaintiff Fedmet Resources, including scope-related and due process arguments. Fedmet signed off on the remand request while the defendant-intervenor Magnesia Carbon Bricks Fair Trade Committee didn't directly oppose it.
The Labor Department unlawfully relied on unverified statements from AT&T officials when denying a unionized group of former AT&T call workers trade adjustment assistance, the Court of International Trade said in a Jan. 5 opinion. Sending the decision back to Labor a second time, Judge Miller Baker said the department can't claim to have verified email communications with AT&T's in-house counsel based only on AT&T knowing the most about its business operations.
A clear reading of the law allows for an importer to bring in goods deemed "drug paraphernalia" federally if they are legal at the state level, Washington-based importer Keirton USA told the Court of International Trade in its Jan. 5 motion for judgment. Seeking to get back its imports of cannabis processors from CBP, Keirton told the trade court that the exemption allowing for the import of drug paraphernalia where it is legal at the state level is "plain and unambiguous and must be applied accordingly" (Keirton USA, Inc. v. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, CIT #21-00452).
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.