The Commerce Department has issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on mattresses from Thailand (A-549-841). The agency preliminarily said the only company under review, Saffron Living Co., Ltd., made sales of subject merchandise to the U.S. at less than fair value during the period under review, and assigned it an AD rate of 763.28%. If Commerce's finding for Saffron is continued in the final results, the agency will assign a 763.28% cash deposit rate to Saffron. Subject merchandise from Saffron entered May 1, 2022, through April 30, 2023, would be liquidated at importer-specific rates. Commerce will make its final decision when it issues the final results of this review, currently due in May.

The Court of International Trade asked parties in nine cases challenging the Commerce Department's circumvention investigation on solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam for a briefing on whether a test case should be designated. In a Jan. 19 order, Judge M. Miller Baker bifurcated the motion for summary judgment procedure for a joint status report and proposed briefing schedule. All parties were asked to submit a joint status report no later than Feb. 9 to answer the question on consolidation (Auxin Solar v. United States, CIT # 23-00221, -00222, -00223, -00224, -00225, -00226, -00227, -00228, -00229).

A model of spare light truck tires imported from Thailand by Cheng Shin Rubber USA is not covered by an antidumping duty order on Thai light truck tires, Commerce said in a Jan. 18 scope ruling. The products were for temporary use only, and temporary tires are excluded from the order, it said.

The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Jan. 24 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):

The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Jan. 24 on AD/CVD proceedings:

The Commerce Department is again amending its preliminary determination in the AD investigation on boltless steel shelving from Thailand (A-549-846), it said in a Jan. 24 notice. Commerce said the AD rate tables in both its original preliminary determination from November (see 2311280055) and in a first amended preliminary determination issued Jan. 2, listed the rates on a "chain rate" (i.e., produced and exported by) basis, rather than on a “produced and/or exported by” basis. The agency made no changes to the rates themselves. The amended table is as follows:

Importer Hanon Systems Alabama dismissed at the Court of International Trade on Jan. 22 its lawsuit challenging the Commerce Department's finding that it's circumventing the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum foil from China by way of South Korea and Thailand (Hanon Systems Alabama Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00269).

Behrouz Mokhtari of McLean, Virginia, and Tehran pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to two conspiracies to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran "by engaging in business activities on behalf of Iranian entities" without getting a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, DOJ announced Jan. 9. Mokhtari will forfeit money, property and assets obtained from the schemes, including a Campbell, California, home, and a money judgment of over $2.8 million, DOJ said. The defendant faces a maximum of five years in prison for each of the two conspiracy counts.

The U.S. moved to dismiss a complaint from solar cell maker Auxin Solar and solar module designer Concept Clean Energy at the Court of International Trade challenging the Commerce Department's pause of antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells and modules from Southeast Asian countries found to be circumventing the AD/CVD orders on these goods from China (Auxin Solar v. United States, CIT # 23-00274).

Electronics distribution company Broad Tech System and its president and owner, Tao Jiang of Riverside, California, pleaded guilty Jan. 11 to participating in a conspiracy to illegally ship chemicals made or distributed by a Rhode Island-based company to a Chinese firm with ties to the Chinese military, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Rhode Island announced. Jiang and Broad Tech admitted to violating the Export Control Act and conspiring to commit money laundering.