The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the 2018 countervailing duty review on utility scale wind towers from Vietnam. The court previously sent back the case so that Commerce could consider evidence relating to respondent CS Wind Vietnam's potential manipulation of its CVD margin. Judge Timothy Reif said the agency provided a reasonable explanation of its findings that CS Wind Vietnam was not manipulating the denominator in its subsidy calculation and that the steel plate in question was sourced from Vietnam.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 5 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Canadian energy company Marmen will appeal a Court of International Trade opinion that said the Commerce Department legally refused to factor a company's alleged losses related to its failure to convert certain expenses from U.S. dollars to Canadian dollars into the cost of making wind towers from Canada. According to a notice of appeal, Marmen will take the case, which concerns the antidumping duty investigation on utility scale wind towers from Canada, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, the trade court found that Marmen didn't qualify for the adjustments since its exchange gains and losses were already accounted for in the AD investigation. The court also upheld Commerce's use of the Cohen's d test to root out "masked" dumping (Marmen v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-00169).
The Court of International Trade should reject U.S. steel company Nucor Corp.'s stay motion in a case involving the 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, the U.S. argued. While Nucor wants the case stayed pending the resolution of litigation on the 2018 review of the same CVD order, the present action involves an issue not raised in the preceding case, the government said (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT #23-00003).
The Commerce Department improperly included further-processed auto parts and sales for export in its antidumping duty calculations in an administrative review on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Mexico, manufacturers Maquilacero and Tecnicas de Fluidos (TEFLU) argued in a May 3 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Maquilacero asked the court to remand Commerce's final results, in which Maquilacero/TEFLU was assigned a 9.2% AD margin, to the agency (Maquilacero v. U.S., CIT # 23-00091).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected importer China Custom Manufacturing's rehearing bid in an antidumping and countervailing duty scope case. In the decision, Judges Pauline Newman, Raymond Chen and Tiffany Cunningham said CCM's solar panel mounts do not qualify for the "finished merchandise" exclusion from antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (see 2303020037). In its rehearing motion, CCM said that rehearing was needed to maintain uniformity of the appellate court's prior decisions concerning the "unambiguous plain language" of the finished merchandise exclusion rule. The rehearing bid was referred to the three judges that heard the case, then sent to the remaining active judges on the court (China Custom Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1345).
The Court of International Trade upheld the finding of CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings (ORR) that MSeafood Corp. did not evade antidumping duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from India by transshipping the products through Vietnam, in a decision released to the public May 4. Judge Claire Kelly said that CBP in its affirmative evasion finding failed to consider evidence showing exporter Minh Phu Group's tracing system is reliable and arbitrarily transformed a single instance of evasion into an evasion finding for a whole year.
The Commerce Department dropped its presumption that exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. was controlled by the Chinese government after the Court of International Trade questioned whether the agency could disregard an individually selected respondent's data in favor of the country-wide non-market economy rate. In its remand results to the trade court, Commerce assigned Jilin a zero percent dumping rate using the company's actual submissions during an antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. v. United States, CIT # 18-00191).
World Trade Organization members during April 25-28 "Fish Week" talks showed a willingness to embark on text-based negotiations on fisheries subsidies talks, the WTO said. While the first Fish Week, held in March (see 2303270014), centered on what members wanted to see from the second phase of the talks, the second Fish Week looked at how these objectives would be achieved via bilateral consultations, small group meetings and two plenary meetings, the WTO said.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 4 on AD/CVD proceedings: