The Commerce Department again failed to establish that Germany's KAV program is de jure specific as part of the countervailing duty investigation on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 14 opinion. Judge Claire Kelly said that just because the subsidy program is limited, in this case to certain customers based on energy usage, doesn't mean that it is de jure specific. Commerce didn't explain how the program limits usage to certain industries or enterprises and failed to consider the program's economic and horizontal properties and application, the opinion said.
The Commerce Department didn't properly apply the "proper statutory test for affiliation" between antidumping duty respondent Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. and one of its customers, BNK Steel Co., the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 13 opinion. Judge Stephen Vaden said that Commerce, as part of the 2019-20 AD review of circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand, erred in basing its finding of affiliation between the two companies on a single shared human resources manager and the mere speculation that there could have been other ties between the companies.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Nov. 14 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Importer URE NSP Corp. moved to dismiss its case at the Court of International Trade challenging CBP's miscalculating of its antidumping duty payments on solar cells from Taiwan. The importer said in its complaint that CBP ignored its prior disclosure payments, then partially denied a protest seeking those funds (see 2308140010). The company asked the court to order a refund of about $311,00 plus interest for overpayment of duties (URE NSP Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00154).
Chinese tire exporters Guizhou Tyre Co. and Aeolus Tyre Co. asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to waive the requirement that they file a joint brief in an antidumping duty case or, in the alternative, sever the consolidated action for the two companies. The exporters said that the "good cause" prompting this action is that both exporters are currently adherent to the word limit for a single brief even though both of their cases rest on entirely unique fact patterns (Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2163).
The U.S. challenged exporter Risen Energy Co.'s motion to amend its complaint to add a challenge to the Commerce Department's decision to treat Article 26(2) Tax Exemption Program as countervailable. Filing a brief at the Court of International Trade on Nov. 9, the government said the motion to amend "is futile, and thus lacks merit" since Risen "failed to exhaust its administrative remedies with respect to this claim and none of the limited exceptions to the exhaustion requirement apply" (Risen Energy Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00153).
The Commerce Department's decision to include importer Precision Components' goods in the scope of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller bearings from China cuts against the "clear language of the scope" and Commerce's "historic treatment of the scope," Precision said in a Nov. 9 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Precision Components v. United States, CIT # 23-00218).
The Court of International Trade in a Nov. 14 opinion again remanded the Commerce Department's de jure specificity finding regarding Germany's KAV program as part of the countervailing duty investigation of forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany. Judge Claire Kelly said that Commerce, in its second remand results, did not explain how the German subsidy program limits usage to certain industries or enterprises and failed to consider the program's economic and horizontal properties and application. The program is available in Germany to certain customers based on energy usage. Kelly ruled that the fact that the program is limited does not mean that it is de jure specific.
The Court of International Trade in a Nov. 13 opinion sustained parts and sent back parts of the 2019-20 review of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand. Judge Stephen Vaden sent back the Commerce Department's affiliation analysis regarding mandatory respondent Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. and its customer BNK Steel Co., telling the agency to "apply the proper statutory test for affiliation, and explain" how the facts back its decision. The judge, however, sustained Commerce's affiliation analysis of Saha Thai and six of its other customers. The decision also granted Commerce's request to reconsider the scope of the review following an impending Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision in a separate case brought by Saha Thai.