The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 29 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's 2019 review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea. Judge Mark Barnett said that Commerce must consider its legal basis for finding that South Korea's emissions trading program is countervailable. While the agency said the South Korean government forewent revenue it was otherwise due by fully allocating emissions permits, Barnett noted a standard allocation of the permits may lead to extra government revenue but will not certainly lead to it. The judge added that Commerce failed to support its position that the program is sufficiently limited to an industry.
A defendant in a criminal fraud case shouldn't be allowed to add his criminal attorney to a protective order in a related civil case, DOJ argued in a Sept. 28 motion at the Court of International Trade (U.S. v. Zhe "John" Liu, CIT # 22-00215).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Sept. 28 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department has asked for another remand of the results of its antidumping duty investigation on mattresses from Indonesia, DOJ said in its Sept. 27 reply comments at the Court of International Trade. After reviewing comments by AD petitioner Brooklyn Bedding, DOJ said that it became clear to Commerce that the record was missing information regarding the "nature and full extent of Zinus Korea’s involvement in the sale of Zinus Indonesia’s mattresses" (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00277).
The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 28 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's treatment of "shipping revenue, incentive income, interest income and rental income" in setting the selling, general and administrative expense ratio using Turkish firm Ayes Celikhashir VE CT's financial statements.
The Commerce Department had sufficient domestic industry support to begin and complete an antidumping duty investigation on oil country tubular goods from Argentina, AD petitioners led by U.S. Steel said in a Sept. 22 reply brief at the Court of International Trade (Tenaris Bay City, Inc., et al. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00343).
Antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings at the Commerce Department will be temporarily stopped in the event of a U.S. government shutdown due to a failure in Congress to appropriate funds, lawyers from global firm Veneable wrote. Enforce and Protect Act allegations of AD/CVD evasion also won't be investigated during the shutdown, according to the National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America.
The Commerce Department amended its regulations on administrative protective orders and serving documents in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings. The changes make service of public documents, public versions of business proprietary documents and proprietary documents via electronic transmission the default method of alternative service "when service cannot be effectuated on ACCESS or when ACCESS is unavailable."
The World Trade Organization opened registration for interested parties to attend the dispute panel proceedings in the EU's case against the U.S. antidumping and countervailing duties on ripe olives from Spain. The panel's "substantive meeting" will run from Oct. 25-26. Applications to attend a live screening of the event must be received by Oct. 10.
Front foot and front foot caster assemblies for exercise equipment imported by Concept2 are outside the scope of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled carbon steel flat products from China, the Commerce Department said in a Sept. 25 scope ruling.