The “almost simultaneous” likely start of new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and end of a grace period for AD/CVD on Southeast Asian solar cells and panels creates a “complicated situation for importers” with “intersecting risks,” law firm Covington said in a client alert May 1.

CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:

A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website May 2, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.

Canadian Solar, which is ramping up a 5-gigawatt solar panel manufacturing factory in Texas, told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative that tariff rate quotas on solar cells under the current safeguard action and Section 301 tariffs on machinery that helps make solar panels and cells are harming solar manufacturers. Canadian Solar also is working on opening a solar cell plant in Indiana, but it won't open until late 2025. It imports cells made in Thailand. The TRQ only allows five gigawatts' worth of tariff-free cells in annually.

The Court of International Trade on May 2 sustained the Commerce Department's recalculation of exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container's sales expenses in the 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand. Judge M. Miller Baker said that Sahamitr failed to undermine Commerce's finding that the company's monthly-based calculation of its sales costs were distortive.

The Commerce Department announced the opportunity to request administrative reviews by May 31 of producers and exporters subject to 66 antidumping duty orders and 21 countervailing duty orders with May anniversary dates, as well as one AD order on preserved mushrooms from France that was published in a previous notice with the wrong period of review.

The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:

The Court of International Trade on May 2 sustained the Commerce Department's rejection of exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container's allocation method for its certification expenses in the 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce had the authority to pick an allocation method that gave the exporter a chance to get a price adjustment for certification expenses while "avoiding the distortions reflected in the company's recalculation." The judge added that Commerce properly supported its finding that the allocation method used by Sahamitr was distortive.

The International Trade Commission published notices in the May 1 Federal Register on the following AD/CVD injury, Section 337 patent or other trade proceedings (any notices that warrant a more detailed summary will be in another ITT article):

The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission began five-year sunset reviews of the the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from China (A-570-910/C-570-911); glycine from India (A-533-833/C-533-834); and laminated woven sacks from Vietnam (A-552-823/C-552-824). It also will consider revoking the AD orders on glycine from Japan (A-588-878) and Thailand (A-549-837) and silicomanganese from India (A-533-823) and Kazakhstan (A-834-807), as well as the CVD orders on glycine from China (C-570-081) and Venezuela (C-307-820), Commerce said in a notice May 1.