Meyer Corp.'s imports of cookware do not qualify for first-sale treatment, the Court of International Trade held in a Feb. 9 opinion. After ruling against Meyer's bid for a retrial in the opinion, Judge Thomas Aquilino said that, because the court doesn't know the extent to which parent company Meyer Holdings had the ability to influence the price paid for the goods sold between affiliates, due to the company's failure to submit its financial information, the use of first sale was not supported.
The Commerce Department failed to explain how its policy of presuming that exporters from non-market economies (NMEs) are controlled by the state and thus deserving of a single NME-wide antidumping rate is rooted in either the statute or Commerce's regulations, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Feb. 9 opinion. Remanding the case over questions on the policy's legal origins for a second time, Judge Richard Eaton also called into question how the NME presumption policy weighs against Commerce's legal obligation to calculate an individual rate for a mandatory respondent using its own data.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 10 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's final results in the 2018 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves remanded the case for Commerce to consider information relating to the prevailing market conditions, such as price, quality and other conditions of purchase or sale, when determining whether a benefit was conferred to respondent Hyundai Steel from the South Korea's government provision of port usage rights. Choe-Groves also granted Commerce's voluntary remand request over sewerage usage fees after it said it learned more about the program.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Feb. 9 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department's remand results in a countervailing duty case brought by Nucor Corp. should not be considered in a separate CVD case led by Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret, the U.S. argued in a Feb. 8 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. For starters, the remand results -- which saw Commerce decide not to treat a CVD respondent's supplier as a cross-owned input supplier -- have not been sustained, but even if they were, the trade court is not bound by judgments of other CIT judges, the government said. Also, the analysis in the Nucor case deals with particular companies and is specific to that case (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. U.S., CIT # 21-00565).
A proposed remand order that would force the International Trade Commission to reconsider a 2021 final injury determination in an antidumping duty case on methionine from Spain and Japan overly restricts the ITC's authority and discretion, defendant-intervenor Novus International argued in its Feb. 8 response to the draft order (Adisseo Espana and Adisseo USA v. U.S., CIT # 21-00562).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's recent decision upholding President Donald Trump's imposition of Section 232 national security tariffs on steel and aluminum derivative products provides further evidence that exporter Oman Fasteners will suffer irreparable harm without an injunction in an antidumping duty case, Oman Fasteners argued. Filing a motion to take judicial notice at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 7, the exporter said that in light of the Federal Circuit's decision it will be required to pay the Section 232 duties on its steel nails entered after Feb. 8, 2020 (Oman Fasteners v. United States, CIT # 22-00348).
The Court of International Trade erred by relying on information not presented to the Commerce Department in a scope case, misinterpreting the International Trade Commission's findings in the original injury proceeding and mischaracterizing statements in other ITC cases, appellant Wheatland Tube Co. argued in a Feb. 3 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe's arguments supporting the CIT's analysis "are unpersuasive," since they ignore the plain language of the relevant antidumping duty order, the brief said (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2181).
The Commerce Department has the statutory authority to carry out expedited reviews in countervailing duty investigations, the U.S. argued in a Feb. 7 amicus brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The U.S was invited to file the amicus brief by the Federal Circuit after it failed to appear regularly in the case. Taking the court up on its offer, the government claimed that the Commerce Department had preexisting authority for the regulation under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, though even if this preexisting structure did not exist, the URAA itself along with the Statement of Administrative Action's statements provide authority for expedited CVD reviews (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-1021).