The Court of International Trade on March 18 said that the U.S. waited too long to send surety firm Aegis Security Insurance Co. a bill for an unpaid customs bond on Chinese garlic imports that entered in 2004. Judge Stephen Vaden said that the government's eight-year delay in demanding the payment from Aegis "was unreasonable and a breach of contract." The court said the delay broke the "reasonable time requirement" -- an "implied contractual term."
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices March 18 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Exporter PT. Zinus Global Indonesia on March 14 dismissed its lawsuit at the Court of International Trade challenging the 2020-22 review of the antidumping duty order on mattresses from Indonesia. The exporter filed the complaint in the case last month, contesting the Commerce Department's constructed value profit and selling expense ratios, treatment of B grade mattress sales as U.S. sales and differential pricing analysis. No reason was provided as to the suit's dismissal (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. United States, CIT # 24-00004).
After the Commerce Department undertook a court-ordered on-site verification visit for an Indian forged steel fluid end block exporter due to a petitioner’s lawsuit, the petitioner responded in comments March 8 saying that the visit stirred up new inconsistencies that Commerce should have taken into consideration when calculating the exporter’s antidumping duty rate (Ellwood City Forge Co. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00007).
Petitioners contested in comments March 13 a third remand redetermination in which the Commerce Department reluctantly ruled that a German government subsidy was not specific to a German exporter of forged steel fluid end block. Commerce failed to conduct a de facto specificity analysis, they argued (BGH Edelstahl Siegen GmbH v. U.S., CIT # 21-00080).
CBP is adding an administrative protective order process for companies involved in Enforce and Protect Act investigations to access business confidential information of other "interested parties," so the companies can have full access to CBP's decision-making in a duty evasion investigation, the agency said.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices March 15 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Aluminum coil produced from 8011 alloy aluminum, with a thickness between .2mm and 6.3mm, is not subject the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on common alloy aluminum sheet from China, the Commerce Department said in a March 13 scope ruling. It said the relevant orders do not describe products made of 8011 alloy.
Certain types of circular welded non-alloy steel pipe exported from the U.S. to Mexico for reprocessing and subsequent re-importation are not covered by the antidumping duty order on Mexican standard pipe, the Commerce Department said in a March 13 scope ruling. The products’ country of origin is the U.S., not Mexico, the department said.
Correction: The Commerce Department on March 12 conducted "under respectful protest" a pass-through analysis to show, by court order, that an Indonesian tax program that lowered the cost of an input wasn't being double counted by antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on biodiesel from Indonesia. The agency continued to find that there was no double remedy and that it could disregard some sales due to a particular market situation (see 2403130049).