The Commerce Department went too far when it rejected all of Vietnamese exporter Hoa Phat Steel Pipe Co.'s submitted factual information in three anti-circumvention inquiries on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from China, Taiwan and South Korea, Hoa Phat said in a trio of complaints at the Court of International Trade. The exporter said that while Commerce has some discretion in how it conducts AD proceedings, "there is substantial court precedent that Commerce cannot abuse this discretion" (Hoa Phat Steel Pipe Co. v. United States, CIT #s 23-00248, -00249, -00250).

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The Court of International Trade should not grant improper Diamond Tools Technology's application for attorney fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act since the government's position in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation was "substantially justified" and the case presented a "matter of first impression and a novel issue," the U.S. argued in a Nov. 27 reply brief (Diamond Tools Technology v. United States, CIT # 20-00060).

A case challenging President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties onto derivative products shouldn't be stayed pending the U.S. Supreme Court's review of the Chevron deference doctrine, the government told the high court in a Nov. 27 brief. Replying to exporter Oman Fasteners' petition for a writ of certiorari, DOJ said the case involving the review of Chevron, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, will not affect the present dispute because Loper Bright doesn't involve "challenges to actions taken by the President" (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., Sup. Ct. # 23-432).

The current scope of ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on aluminum extrusions from 15 countries would impose heavy costs on U.S. manufacturers and consumers, and as written would make it nearly impossible for CBP to administer and importers to comply, said a bevy of large multinational corporations and trade associations in comments filed recently filed with the Commerce Department.

The Court of International Trade in a Nov. 27 opinion sustained the Commerce Department's finding that ship building company Nur Gemicilik ve Tic, an affiliate of countervailing duty respondent Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret, is not Kaptan's cross-owned input supplier. Judge Gary Katzmann upheld Commerce's finding that Nur's steel scrap was not necessarily primarily dedicated to Kaptan's rebar production, and its consideration of Nur's business activities as part of this analysis.

The Commerce Department properly hit exporter Kumar Industries with a 13.61% adverse facts available dumping rate due to the respondent's "inadequate explanations" regarding one of its partners' ownership interest in two unnamed companies, companies A and B, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 22 opinion. Judge Timothy Stanceu sustained the rate as part of the first antidumping duty review on glycine from India, finding that Kumar "raised more questions than it answered" in its submissions, preventing Commerce from conducting a proper affiliate analysis.

Six users of the virtual currency mixer Tornado Cash are appealing a U.S. court decision that upheld sanctions against the cryptocurrency service, saying the Treasury Department illegally stretched its authorities “beyond recognition” when it designated Tornado Cash last year. The six people argued that U.S. sanctions laws don’t allow Treasury to designate an “open-source software project” like Tornado Cash because it doesn’t meet the definition of “property” under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

A USMCA dispute settlement panel ruled in Canada’s favor in a much-awaited second decision on Canada’s dairy tariff rate quotas, according to a report released by the panel on Nov. 24.

Importer Amsted Rail Co. and its Mexican maquiladora affiliate ASF-K Mexico returned a conflict of interest suit against their former counsel, Buchanan Ingersoll partner Daniel Pickard to the Court of International Trade. Filing another complaint at the trade court after previous claims against the Buchanan partner fell short for jurisdictional reasons, ARC said Pickard "betrayed" the company by using its information against it in an injury petition on freight rail couplers from Mexico and China (Amsted Rail Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00242).