The Commerce Department correctly found that exporter KG Dongbu Steel's debt-to-equity restructurings provided a countervailable benefit, DOJ said in an Oct. 20 reply at the Court of International Trade. Dongbu is challenging the fifth countervailing duty review of corrosion-resistant steel products from Korea and took issue with Commerce's findings of a countervailable benefit to the restructurings as well as the determination that benefits from those swaps passed to Dongbu after an ownership change. The exporter also argued that Commerce incorrectly calculated long-term loan benchmarks (KG Dongbu Steel Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00055).
The Commerce Department properly saddled countervailing duty respondent Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co. (GRT) with adverse facts available related to its alleged use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 20 opinion. While Commerce and the trade court have rejected the use of AFA for this program where a respondent can submit verifications that their U.S. buyers didn't use the program, Judge Mark Barnett sustained AFA here since GRT failed to raise its claims against the use of AFA administratively.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Oct. 23 opinion sustained the Commerce Department's decision not to countervail the South Korean government's provision of electricity as part of the countervailing duty investigation into carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Judges Raymond Chen, Todd Hughes and Tiffany Cunningham said that, after the appellate court's previous rejection of Commerce's preferential rate analysis, the agency appropriately used a less than adequate remuneration analysis. Commerce also sufficiently investigated the Korean Power Exchange's generation costs and found no countervailable benefit, the court said.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Oct. 20 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The U.S. asked for 17 more days to file its reply brief in the lead case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test in its analysis of "masked" dumping in antidumping duty proceedings. The brief is currently due on Oct. 20 and the extension request, the second of its kind for the U.S. following a prior 45-day extension, would see the brief due Nov. 6 if granted. Exporter and appellant SeAH Steel Corp. told the government it objects to the motion (Stupp Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1663).
The Supreme Court hasn't decided a case using its decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council since 2016, prompting the question not of whether it should be overruled but whether the high court "should let lower courts and citizens in on the news," commercial fishing companies led by Loper Bright Enterprises argued. Filing a reply brief in a key case on Chevron, which grants deference to federal agencies in interpreting ambiguous statutes, the fishing companies said the decision "has already proven itself unworkable, and its corrosive effects on our separation of powers have lingered long enough" (Loper Bright Enterprises v. Gina Raimondo, Sup. Ct. # 22-451).
The Commerce Department shouldn't have relied on adverse facts available in an antidumping duty review on tapered roller bearings from China when the respondent was fully cooperative, Chinese roller bearing exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing said in an Oct. 19 reply at Court of International Trade. Tainai didn't dispute a gap in the record due to incomplete or nonexistent responses from its suppliers. However, the company objected to the use of adverse inferences because it says it complied to the best of its ability (Shanghai Tainai Bearing v. U.S., CIT # 23-00020).
The Commerce Department incorrectly found solar panels imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are circumventing the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, according to four separate complaints, all filed on Oct. 18 and all asking the Court of International Trade for remand.
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 20 opinion sustained the Commerce Department's 2020 review of the countervailing duty order on truck and bus tires from China. Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce properly levied Qingdao Ge Rui Da Rubber Co. with an adverse facts available rate over its alleged use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program. The court said that the exporter failed to raise a host of challenges to the use of AFA administratively, barring relief on its claims at CIT.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Oct. 19 on AD/CVD proceedings: