CBP has determined that C.I.S. Investments, doing business as Triangle Metals, evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on forged steel fittings from China, according to a Dec. 20 notice. The determination comes at the end of an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, which found that C.I.S. transshipped fittings through Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, did not declare that the merchandise was subject to AD/CVD orders upon entry, and made no cash deposits. CBP will require that for any imports of forged steel fittings from Sri Lanka, Thailand or Indonesia, C.I.S. deposit estimated duties at the time of entry, and CBP will evaluate the continuous bond and will require single transaction bonds as appropriate.
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade should let the U.S. add a key "Deficiencies Memorandum" to the record of an antidumping duty case since the document was "intertwined" with the AD proceeding's final results, petitioner Rebar Trade Action Coalition argued in a Dec. 21 reply brief. Arguing the memorandum is part of the record "as a matter of law" since it was "considered by agency decision-makers," the petitioner opposed the initiative from the Grupo Simec-led plaintiffs to oppose the addition of the memo to the record (Grupo Acerero v. United States, CIT Consol. #22-00202).
The Court of International Trade in a confidential Dec. 22 opinion upheld parts of and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's sixth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. In a letter, Judge Richard Easton said he wishes to issue a public version of the opinion in the "near future," giving parties until Jan. 3 to review any confidential information in the opinion. The case, which has over 40 plaintiffs, concerns Commerce's decision to hit separate rate respondents with the China-wide dumping rate and to calculate a simple averaged rate instead of a weighted average margin for the separate rate respondents (Fusong Jinlong Wooden Group Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. #19-00144).
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 22 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's final results in the 2017-2018 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on hardwood plywood from China. In all, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves looked at the six issues and sided with Commerce: (1) Commerce's calculation of normal value for respondent Linyi Chengen using its normal methodology and not its alternative input methodology; (2) Commerce's surrogate value data and calculation for Linyi Chengen's log inputs; (3) the agency's surrogate value calculation for labor; (4) whether a reply brief from the plaintiffs raises new arguments and has new information; (5) the surrogate value for Linyi Chengen's formaldehyde input; and (6) Commerce's selection of financial statements and calculation of surrogate financial ratios.
The first decision of the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration arrangement, or MPIA, was judiciously economical, and also gave more deference to countries' antidumping authorities, trade experts said.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 22 opinion granted plaintiff Aluminum Extrusions Fair Trade Committee's motion for a preliminary injunction in an Enforce and Protect Act case. Judge Richard Eaton ruled that the plaintiff sufficiently proved that it will be "immediately and irreparably" harmed without the injunction barring liquidation of importer Kingtom Aluminio's aluminum extrusions until the litigation has ended. The judge further ruled that the industry group has a "'fair chance' of success on the meritsm" given that there have been several cases with the same merchandise and parties where CBP has asked for voluntary remand or reversed itself.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Dec. 23 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Court of International Trade must not dismiss a case accusing importer Wanxiang America of gross negligence in its entries of wheel hub assemblies, radial ball and tapered roller bearings and universal joints from China, DOJ argued in a Dec. 21 opposition motion. The case addresses what DOJ calls "multiple grossly negligent and negligent violations" of Section 592 in connection with entries of wheel hub assemblies made between October 2007 and September 2012 that purportedly resulted in millions of dollars of lost duties for the government (United States v. Wanxiang America, CIT #22-00205).
Aspects Furniture International, plaintiff in an Enforce and Protect Act case, is waiving its arguments about CBP's lack of public summaries in an evasion proceeding, the plaintiff told the Court of International Trade in a Dec. 20 motion. Asking the court to partially waive its November order on the public summaries, Aspects said that, because CBP is reopening the record to allow revised public versions of certain documents to be submitted and requesting that the plaintiff resubmit most of the public version submissions made during the investigation, the court's order is no longer needed (Aspects Furniture International v. United States, CIT # 20-03824).