The Commerce Department failed to adequately explain its treatment of costs needed to convert steel plates into wind towers in the 2021-22 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on utility scale wind towers from South Korea, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 2. Judge Leo Gordon said the U.S. provided "inadequate" explanation of the decision to use respondent Dongkuk’s reported conversion costs instead of the costs reported by the petitioner, the Wind Tower Trade Coalition.
Mikki Cottet, a longtime DOJ attorney, is leaving the agency, according to a notice at the Court of International Trade. Cottet joined the agency in 1994 as a trial attorney in the international trade field office and has been a senior trial counsel since 2007. Speaking before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 1 during an oral argument, Cottet said "it has been an honor to practice before this court for the last 31 and a half years."
Electronics importer Harman International Industries agreed to pay more than $11.8 million to settle allegations it evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan announced on Nov. 26.
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its mandate on Dec. 1 in an antidumping duty case after finding the Commerce Department erred in using likely selling prices as facts otherwise available for AD respondent AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke's cost of production in the AD investigation on carbon and steel cut-to-length plate from Germany (see 2510060037). The court said that where there's a gap to fill on the record, "there must be a reasonable relationship between the selected facts otherwise available and the gap to be filled," and that no such relationship existed between the likely selling prices and Dillinger's cost of production (AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1498).
The Commerce Department abused its discretion in rejecting information submitted by countervailing duty respondent Ternium Mexico regarding three alleged subsidy programs in the CVD investigation on corrosion-resistant steel products, Ternium argued in a Nov. 26 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Ternium Mexico v. United States, CIT # 25-00236).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit questioned whether it should grant the government's voluntary remand motion in an antidumping duty case on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test in light of CAFC's decisions in Stupp v. U.S. and Marmen v. U.S. During oral argument held Dec. 1, Judges Richard Taranto, William Bryson and Tiffany Cunningham appeared ready to grant the motion, asking the parties what specifically the remand order should say (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1556).
World Trade Organization members adopted a compliance panel report in a dispute on Colombia's antidumping duties on frozen fries from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands during the Nov. 24 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body.
Following the Supreme Court's oral argument in the lead cases on whether the president can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs, various trade lawyers speculated that the high court now appears poised to strike down the tariffs.
The U.S. urged the Court of International Trade on Nov. 24 to dismiss conservation group Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ's suit seeking an import ban on seafood and seafood products from set net and trawl fisheries off New Zealand's North Island (Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders NZ v. National Marine Fisheries Service, CIT # 24-00218).