In an August decision only made public on Nov. 14, the Court of International Trade remanded aspects of the Commerce Department’s 2008-09 antidumping duty administrative review on steel nails from China (A-570-909). The court’s Aug. 30 opinion took issue with Commerce’s treatment of entries that importers had said were exported by Certified Products International (CPI), even though that Taiwanese company was found to have no exports during the period. CIT found inconsistencies between Commerce practice in market economy reviews, where the importers would have paid the all others rate in that situation, and non-market economy reviews such as this one, where the importers were allowed to pay CPI’s rate.

The antidumping duty rate assigned to Thai Plastic Bags Industries (TPBI) will rise slightly, after the Court of International Trade affirmed a Commerce Department redetermination of the AD duty administrative review on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand (A-549-821). Commerce had assigned TPBI a rate of 35.71% in the final results of the 2009-10 review. The agency made minor changes to its calculation for the company in response to a March 2013 court remand (see 13041102, bringing TPBI’s AD rate up to 35.79%. CIT affirmed in increase in the face of challenges from both TPBI and domestic industry.

Antidumping duty cash deposit rates will fall for three exporters of wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-890), after the Court of International Trade sustained on Nov. 14 a Commerce Department redo of a 2009 administrative review. Commerce had originally set AD duty rates at 41.75% for mandatory respondent Dalian Huafeng, as well as non-individually reviewed separate rate companies Nanhai Baiyi and Dongguan Liaobushangdun.¹ But after two CIT remands (see 12092102 and 13062702), Commerce lowered the AD rates for all three companies to 11.79%.

The Court of International Trade sustained on Nov. 8 the high 137.2% antidumping duty rate assigned to Hubscher Ribbon Corp. for noncooperation in an administrative review on narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge from Taiwan. Hubschercorp had responded to the Commerce Department’s first request for information in the 2010-11 review, and then told the agency it would no longer participate. Commerce assigned it a 137.2% AD rate, relying on adverse facts available. Hubschercorp said that rate couldn’t possibly reflect reality, given that the only individual AD rates calculated up to that point on ribbons from Taiwan were zero and 4.37 percent, respectively. Given Commerce’s corroboration of the high rate using Hubschercorp’s own data, the court found that argument lacking. Hubschercorp merely showed Commerce could have interpreted the record in a different way when it assigned the rate but it failed to show Commerce’s rate was unreasonable.

The Court of International Trade denied on Nov. 6 an attempt by LG Electronics to put on hold a case on the International Trade Commission's antidumping and countervailing duty injury determination on large residential washers from South Korea and Mexico. LG Electronics wanted the case delayed while CIT considered a separate lawsuit on the Commerce Department's determinations from the same investigation. It argued that if the court remanded and Commerce came back with low AD/CV duty rates, it could affect the ITC's consideration. But the court found the potential upside of LG's Commerce Department challenge to be uncertain -- even if Commerce reduced its rates to zero, there is no guarantee the ITC would change its injury determination -- to justify the potentially years-long delay that would result from waiting on the outcome of the Commerce case.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed on Nov. 5 a lower court ruling on the tariff classification of hole punches for paper scrapbooks. As the Court of International Trade had done in September 2012 (see 12100102), the appeals court held Wilton Industries’ “Stampin’ Up!” hole punches should be classified as “perforating punches” under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8203, rather than Wilton’s preferred classification as paper cutting machines under heading 8441. The former heading exactly describes Wilton’s hole punches, while the latter is reserved for paper manufacturing machinery, CAFC said.

The Court of International Trade sustained on Nov. 4 the final determination from the Commerce Department’s antidumping investigation on drill pipe from China (A-570-965). Downhole Pipe and its Chinese affiliate DP-Master challenged the way the agency valued a key input, and CIT had remanded in November on the issue 12112301. On remand, Commerce changed the way it valued the input, but ended up raising Downhole Pipe’s AD rate from 69.19% to 149.36%. Downhole Pipe unsurprisingly continued to contest the determination, but CIT found Commerce’s redetermination to be reasonable.

The U.S. government filed federal charges against a Belgian businessman in Chicago for trying to export aluminum tubes without the required U.S. Commerce Department license, ICE said in a press release. The charges allege that Nicholas Kaiga was trying to export the aluminum tubes, which are controlled for nuclear nonproliferation purposes, from an Illinois company, through Belgium, to a Malaysian company, said ICE.

A Missouri man pleaded guilty Oct. 29 to playing part in a conspiracy to import and sell counterfeit DVDs over the internet. Matthew Cerullo, of Springfield, imported more than 22,000 counterfeit DVDs from Hong Kong between February and Sept. 2013, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri. He sold the DVDs over the internet on eBay and Amazon through several businesses he owned, it said. Cerullo faces up to 40 years in prison without parole, the attorney’s office said.

The Court of International Trade finally sustained the Commerce Department’s 2008 final countervailing duty determination on new pneumatic off-the-road tires from China (C-570-913), bringing to an end after five years of litigation a case that at one point called into question Commerce’s ability to impose CV duties on China at all 11122210. CIT had in January accepted the constitutionality of the 2012 law authorizing CV duties on non-market economy, but remanded on more mundane issues (see 13010830). On remand, Commerce lowered TUTRIC’s CV duty rate from 6.85% to 3.93%. The court found Commerce adequately explained its reasoning, and accepted the results despite challenges from both domestic industry and Chinese exporters.