The Court of International Trade, in a decision made public Aug. 29, sustained the Commerce Department's 2021 review of the countervailing duty order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires from India. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce permissibly found that no benefit was conferred through India's Advance Authorization Scheme, which is akin to an advance drawback system. Commerce countervails the withheld import duties under this scheme unless the foreign government has an "effective, systemic process for verifying the use of such exempted inputs or has carried out an examination of actual inputs to verify their use." The judge said the record supports the agency's finding that the Indian government "conducted an examination of the actual inputs involved" in respondent Balkrishna Industries' production of subject tires to "confirm which inputs were consumed in the production of the exported product and in what quantities."
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Aug. 28 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The petitioner and a pair of respondents traded briefs at the Court of International Trade regarding various elements of the Commerce Department's countervailing duty investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador (Industrial Pesquera Santa Priscila v. United States, CIT Consol. # 25-00025).
The Court of International Trade sustained parts and remanded parts of the 2021 review of the countervailing duty order on pasta from Italy in a confidential decision issued on Aug. 27. Judge Mark Barnett gave the parties until Sept. 3 to review the confidential information in the decision. The suit was brought by exporter Pastificio Gentile to contest the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available against the company. Pastificio argued that the agency's use of excessive AFA rates violates the Eighth Amendment's bar against excessive fines (see 2502100048) (Pastificio Gentile S.r.l. v. United States, CIT # 24-00037).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Aug. 27 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Exporter Canadian Solar International on Aug. 25 dropped its case on the International Trade Commission's final affirmative injury determination on solar cells from Thailand. Canadian Solar is continuing to litigate its cases against the Commerce Department's antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on solar cells from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam (see 2508250043). Counsel for Canadian Solar didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on why the company decided to drop the case on the injury proceeding (Canadian Solar International v. United States, CIT # 25-00168).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit last week denied exporter Salzgitter Flachstahl's bid to have the court rehear its case on the use of partial adverse facts available against the company in the antidumping duty investigation on cut-to-length carbon and alloy steel plate from Germany. Judges Alan Lourie, Timothy Dyk and Jimmie Reyna denied the petition for panel rehearing, leading the court to issue its mandate in the case on Aug. 26 (AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1219).
A dispute panel at the World Trade Organization on Aug. 22 found that the European Commission violated its WTO commitments in imposing countervailing duties on biodiesel from Indonesia. The panel found that the commission erred in finding that the Indonesian government provides a countervailable subsidy to biodiesel producers via the provision of crude palm oil and in concluding that Indonesian biodiesel imports "cause a threat of material injury to EU biodiesel producers."
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Aug. 26 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The following lawsuit was filed recently at the Court of International Trade: