The Commerce Department in Nov. 29 remand results at the Court of International Trade dropped its particular market situation adjustment from the sales-below-cost test when calculating normal value following a voluntary remand request in an antidumping duty case. The result dropped respondent Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Ltd.'s AD margin from 36.97% to 14.74%. The agency also reduced the margin for non-selected respondent Thai Premium Pipe Co. since it is part of the litigation (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company v. United States, CIT #21-00627).
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CBP failed to provide public summaries of the confidential information in an Enforce and Protect Act antidumping duty evasion investigation, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 28 opinion. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sent back parts and upheld parts of the EAPA finding, ultimately also remanding CBP's decision to retroactively cover entries made before the EAPA statute came into force and include merchandise found by the Commerce Department in a scope ruling to not be covered by the order.
The U.S. again blocked a proposal to start the selection process to fill seats on the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body, according to a Geneva-based trade official. Striking down the proposal at the Dispute Settlement Body's Nov. 28 meeting, the U.S. said it does not support filling the body's seats, insisting the first step to WTO revisions should be efforts to better understand the concerns of WTO members, the trade official said.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Nov. 28-29 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department on Nov. 28 issued a proposed rule that would modify its regulations on administrative protective orders and service of documents in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings. The proposal would make permanent certain changes put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the acceptance of service electronically and via Commerce’s ACCESS database in some circumstances. “Commerce also proposes additional clarifications and corrections to other procedural aspects of its AD/CVD regulations, including updates to the scope, circumvention, and covered merchandise referral regulations,” it said. The proposed rule also deletes regulations that have been invalidated by decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Comments are due Dec. 28.
Lawyers from BakerHostetler that represent the Conseil de l’industrie forestière du Québec and the Ontario Forest Industries Association are using a Commerce Department comment process for softwood lumber subsidies to argue once again that the countervailing duty case against Canadian lumber exports contradicts the USMCA Environment Chapter commitments and Biden administration environment and social justice priorities.
The Court of International Trade will hold a hearing in a conflict-of-interest case on the motions to dismiss and for a preliminary injunction barring attorney Daniel Pickard and his firm Buchanan Ingersoll from participating in certain antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, according to the text-only order on Nov. 28. The plaintiffs, led by Amsted Rail Co., allege that Pickard, ARC's former counsel, and Buchanan committed an ethical violation by using ARC's information against it in the AD/CVD proceedings on freight rail couplers from China and Mexico (see 2211250007). ARC had a similar case recently dismissed from the trade court seeking to bar Pickard and Buchanan from the International Trade Commission proceedings (see 2211150033). The court dismissed the action for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction -- something ARC tried to remedy in the Commerce case with an amended complaint (Amsted Rail v. United States, CIT # 22-00316).
The Court of International Trade in a Nov. 28 opinion sent back parts and upheld parts of CBP's evasion finding under the Enforce and Protect Act that Aspects Furniture International (AFI) evaded antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that CBP acted improperly by retroactively covering entries made before the EAPA statute came into force, including in the EAPA investigation of merchandise found by the Commerce Department in a scope ruling to not be covered by the order and failing "to provide sufficient public summaries of confidential documents on the administrative record." However, the judge ruled CBP did not deprive AFI of due process by imposing interim measures before the importer had a chance to respond to the evasion allegation and did not illegally combine the EAPA investigation with a regulatory audit.
CBP has initiated a formal Enforce and Protect Act investigation on whether Vanguard Trading Company evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on quartz surface products from China and imposed interim measures, according to a Nov. 17 notice. The investigation began Aug. 11, following an allegation by Cambria Company LLC, which suggested that Vanguard had evaded the AD/CVD orders by failing to declare that the slab products it is importing are actually QSP from China -- specifically, that a brand of engineered countertop surfaces named Lucciare is labeled as “artificial marble” upon import when it should correctly be classified as QSP, subject to the orders.