The Department of Commerce preliminarily determined that certain types of truck wheels that Asia Wheel manufactures in its facilities in Thailand and exports to the U.S. are subject to the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain steel wheels 22.5 to 24.5 inches in diameter from China, according to a Dec. 13 preliminary scope ruling.
The Commerce Department on Dec. 19 filed a pair of remand redeterminations at the Court of International Trade that exclude ductile iron flanges imported by MCC Holdings, doing business as Crane Resistoflex, and Star Pipe Products from the antidumping duty order on cast iron pipe fittings from China. The trade court previously said the remand results were not issued in a form that the court could sustain. On remand, the agency clarified that it doesn't intend to issue a scope ruling after the court's review of the case, declaring that if the court affirms the remand, a Federal Register notice will be released stating that Crane's and Star Pipe's flanges are outside the scope of the order (MCC Holdings dba Crane Resistoflex v. U.S., CIT # 18-00248) (Star Pipe Products v. United States, CIT # 17-00236).
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 20 opinion denied an injunction bid pending appeal from certain plaintiffs in an attorney conflict-of interest suit. After recently rejecting the plaintiffs' motion for a preliminary injunction for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, Judge Gary Katzmann this time rejected the injunction motion pending appeal since the appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit "has not yet been noticed," but even if it had, the injunction "is unwarranted." Katzmann said that the plaintiffs fail to both show a "strong showing of success on the merits" and prove that they will suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.
The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's fourth remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation of hardwood plywood from China. For the fifth time, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sent back Commerce's calculation of the all-others rate, which the agency determined by averaging a de minimis and an adverse facts available rate. The judge said "Commerce created its own problem" by selecting only two respondents, resulting in "sparse information" to back its assertions.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Dec. 20 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department on Dec. 16 filed its remand redetermination in a Court of International Trade case stemming from its countervailing duty investigation on phosphate fertilizers from Russia (The Mosaic Company v. U.S., CIT #21-00117). Commerce reconsidered its calculation of the total sales for EuroChem, its calculation of the natural gas benchmark, and its analysis of mining rights for less than adequate remuneration. Commerce revised its subsidy rate calculations for EuroChem from 47.05% to 23.77%, for PhosAgro from 9.19% to 14.3%, and the "all others" rate from 17.2% to 16.3%.
The Court of International Trade in a pair of Dec. 16 opinions upheld the Commerce Department's decisions on remand to exclude importers Worldwide Door Components' and Columbia Aluminum Products' door thresholds from the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. After previously remanding the decision for not being submitted in a form that was judicially reviewable, Judge Timothy Stanceu said that this time around the agency has made a scope decision "in a form the court is able to sustain."
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 ruled that the Commerce Department improperly excluded certain solar cell sales from consolidated antidumping duty respondent Inventec Solar Energy Corp.'s (ISEC's) dumping margin based on its finding that ISEC did not have any actual or constructive knowledge that its goods would ultimately end up in the United States. Judge Leo Gordon said that given "the totality of the record, the court cannot sustain as reasonable" the finding that ISEC did not have actual knowledge of the solar cells' destination.
CBP improperly found that importer Diamond Tools Technology made a "material and false" statement in the agency's Enforce and Protect Act evasion finding, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Dec. 16 opinion. Sending the case back to CBP again, Judge Timothy Reif ruled that the agency's use of the EAPA statute is inconsistent with the law's language and structure, and even if its use was legal, its interpretation of the statute is not entitled to deference. Diamond Tools properly classified its merchandise as not covered merchandise given the guidance it had at the time, the judge said.