The Commerce Department correctly treated expenses from suspended production lines as general and accounting costs during an antidumping duty review on welded line pipe from South Korea, DOJ said in its May 5 remand comments at the Court of International Trade. The losses are attributable to the general operations of the company because when lines are shut down for an extended period, no products are produced, which could outweigh the cost of maintaining those lines, DOJ said (Nexteel Co. v. U.S., CIT # 20-03898).
The Court of International Trade denied countervailing duty petitioner Nucor Corp.'s motion for a stay in a case involving the 2019 administrative review of the CVD order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Judge Mark Barnett said the court ruled on a similar stay request in a different case also brought by Nucor, finding in both instances that "Nucor's desire to avoid duplicative efforts is not the type of 'pressing need' meriting an indefinite stay" (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00003).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied a motion from plaintiff-appellants, led by Spanish olive growers Asociacion de Exportadores e Industriales de Aceitunas de Mesa, to get an additional 1,500 words to file in their reply brief in a case concerning the countervailing duty investigation on the ripe olives from Spain. Judge Kara Stoll told the olive growers that their brief is not to exceed 7,000 words and is due within 21 days. The olive growers asked for the additional words due to the "complexity of the issues presented in this appeal and the fact-specific nature of the arguments raised by the other parties" (see 2304170032) (Asociacion de Exportadores e Industriales de Aceitunas de Mesa v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1162).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted U.S. Steel Corp.'s motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test as part of its differential pricing analysis to root out "masked" dumping (SeAH Steel Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1109). In this case and a separate appeal on the same issue, the court acknowledged that Maverick Tube Corp., Tenaris Bay City and IPSCO Tubulars will no longer participate in the proceedings. The opening brief in this matter, appealed by exporter SeAH Steel Corp., is due 60 days from May 4. The remaining appellees following the departure of the three companies are the U.S., U.S. Steel Corp., Vallourec Star and Welded Tube USA (SeAH Steel Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1657).
Canadian energy company Marmen will appeal a Court of International Trade opinion that said the Commerce Department legally refused to factor a company's alleged losses related to its failure to convert certain expenses from U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars into the cost of making wind towers from Canada. According to a notice of appeal, Marmen will take the case, which concerns the antidumping duty investigation on utility scale wind towers from Canada, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, the trade court found that Marmen didn't qualify for the adjustments since its exchange gains and losses were already accounted for in the AD investigation. The court also upheld Commerce's use of the Cohen's d test to root out "masked" dumping (Marmen v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-00169).
The Court of International Trade should reject U.S. steel company Nucor Corp.'s stay motion in a case involving the 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, the U.S. argued. While Nucor wants the case stayed pending the resolution of litigation on the 2018 review of the same CVD order, the present action involves an issue not raised in the preceding case, the government said (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT #23-00003).
The Commerce Department improperly included further-processed auto parts and sales for export in its antidumping duty calculations in an administrative review on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Mexico, manufacturers Maquilacero and Tecnicas de Fluidos (TEFLU) argued in a May 3 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Maquilacero asked the court to remand Commerce's final results, in which Maquilacero/TEFLU was assigned a 9.2% AD margin, to the agency (Maquilacero v. U.S., CIT # 23-00091).
If the Commerce Department had chosen additional respondents in an administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China, the results would have been more accurate and resulted in a lower duty rate, Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry (Senmao) said in its May 1 comments on Commerce's remand results at the Court of International Trade (Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT # 20-03885).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed a suit from fireworks importer Jake's Fireworks concerning the Consumer Product Safety Commission's determination that the company's "Excalibur" line of fireworks constitutes a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Judge Theodore Chuang said the CPSC's notices of noncompliance do not amount to final agency action, depriving Jake's Fireworks of the right to challenge the notices as having violated the Administrative Procedure Act (Jake's Fireworks v. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, D. Md. 2023)