The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Plaintiffs in a countervailing duty case will appeal a September Court of International Trade decision which found that the Commerce Department properly found that a particular EU subsidy to Spanish olive growers was de facto specific. According to the notice of appeal, plaintiffs Asociacion de Exportadores e Industriales de Aceitunas de Mesa, Agro Sevilla Aceitunas S. Coop. and Angel Camacho Alimentacion will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the decision, the trade court also upheld Commerce's finding that demand for ripe olives -- the subject merchandise in the CVD investigation -- was substantially dependent on the demand for certain raw olive varietals -- the good that received the subsidies (see 2209140052) (Asociacion de Exportadores e Industriales de Aceitunas de Mesa v. United States, CIT #18-00195).
The Court of International Trade does not have jurisdiction under 19 U.S.C. Section 1581(i) -- the court's "residual" jurisdiction -- to hear a case over whether former counsel for Amsted Rail Co. should be barred from certain antidumping and countervailing proceedings, the U.S. told the court. Concurrently filing an opposition to ARC's motion for a preliminary injunction, which would bar ARC's former counsel, Daniel Pickard and law firm Buchanan Ingersoll, from participating in the proceedings, and a motion to dismiss, the U.S. said that the court does not have jurisdiction to hear the case and that the plaintiffs are not likely to succeed in the matter (Amsted Rail Co. v. United States, CIT #22-00316).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Nov. 10 on AD/CVD proceedings:
CBP announced that it has initiated and consolidated two Enforce and Protect Act investigations into whether Gorilla Paper, Inc. and Gorilla Supply (Gorilla) evaded antidumping duty on thermal paper from Germany and South Korea, according to a notice dated Nov. 3. The announcement followed evasion allegations by Paper Receipts Converting Association (PRCA) and the subsequent investigation began on July 29.
Plaintiffs in a conflict-of-interest suit at the Court of International Trade invoked three court decisions -- two from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and one from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit -- in a Nov. 9 notice of supplemental authority. The plaintiffs, led by Amsted Rail Co., said the cases were discussed during the hearing on the issue held at the trade court (Amsted Rail v. ITC , CIT #22-00307).
Antidumping petitioner Ellwood City Co. failed to preserve its objection to the Commerce Department's use of a questionnaire in light of on-site verification by not exhausting administrative remedies, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Nov. 8 opinion. Judge Stephen Vaden said Ellwood City had many chances to object to the verification methodology in the AD investigation, but it never did. However, the case was remanded to Commerce over defendant-intervenor and AD respondent BGH Edelstahl Siegen's challenge to Commerce's use of a particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch in a Nov. 7 dissenting opinion railed against the court system's use of Chevron deference in a case over veterans' disability benefits. Breaking from his colleagues' decision on the petition for writ of certiori, Gorsuch decried the use of Chevron deference as the "kind of judicial abdication" that "disserves both our veterans and the law."
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Nov. 9 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department erred by selecting Romania as the surrogate country for China in an antidumping duty review, plaintiffs Jiangsu Alcha Aluminum, Baotou Alcha Aluminum and Alcha International Holdings argued in a Nov. 7 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Bulgaria is both economically comparable to China and has significant production of the subject merchandise, making the selection of Romania illegal, the plaintiffs said. The complaint also objects to Commerce's selection of financial statements, use of partial adverse facts available over raw material consumption, double remedies adjustment and surrogate distance of North American inland train freight (Jiangsu Alcha Aluminum v. U.S., CIT #22-00292).