Section 232 steel tariffs paid by importer North American Interpipe should be deducted from its U.S. price in an antidumping proceeding, the importer, along with its Ukrainian manufacturer, argued in an April 6 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Taking a novel approach to this position -- which has been routinely defeated at CIT -- Interpipe said the national security tariffs should be deducted due to their tentative nature given that a number of exclusion requests were retroactively granted in a separate CIT case challenging the exclusion denials (Interpipe Ukraine v. U.S., CIT #22-00066).
The Commerce Department had to draw a line somewhere, and its use of a test to distinguish the production activities of producers and fabricators to determine industry support in antidumping duty and countervailing duty investigations on quartz surface products from India is in line with the law and prior court precedent, DOJ said in a reply brief filed April 6 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit signaled during an April 6 oral argument that whether a country is a non-market economy would not stand as a criterion in determining whether to grant an import first sale valuation. Responding to arguments from John Peterson, counsel for importer and plaintiff Meyer Corp. and Beverly Farrell of DOJ, three Federal Circuit judges -- Judge Todd Hughes in particular -- said that it was unlikely the government would succeed in defending the use of this criterion in customs law, as non-market economy principle is reserved for trade remedy laws (Meyer Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-1932).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 7 on AD/CVD proceedings:
CBP began a formal EAPA investigation into whether Acmetex Inc. and New Fire Co., Ltd. evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on amorphous silica fabric, according to a March 28 announcement by CBP. The case follows an Oct 18, 2021, allegation by Auburn Manufacturing, Inc., that claims Canadian company Acmetex evaded AD and CVD orders A-570-038 and C-570-0396 on silica fabric produced in China by misclassifying fabric as “glass cloth fiber” and transshipping covered silica fabric from China through Canada to the U.S.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Domestic U.S. cut-to-length carbon steel plate (CTL plate) producer SSAB Enterprises should not be allowed to intervene in exporter Dongkuk Steel Mill Co.'s countervailing duty challenge, the exporter told the Court of International Trade in an April 5 brief. Since SSAB did not submit any factual information or written arguments to the Commerce Department during the relevant CVD proceeding, SSAB is not an "interested party" with standing to intervene in the case, Dongkuk said (Dongkuk Steel Mill Co. v. United States, CIT #22-00032).
The Commerce Department improperly applied adverse facts available to antidumping duty adminstrative review respondent Xinjiang Meihua Amino Acid Co. since the agency failed to notify the respondent that there was a deficiency in its responses, Meihua said in an April 6 complaint at the Court of International Trade. As a result of using AFA, Commerce hit Meihua with a 154.07% dumping margin -- a rate dubbed "draconian" by the plaintiffs (Meihua Group International Trading (Hong Kong) Limited v. United States, CIT #22-00069).
The Commerce Department's finding that two EU agriculture subsidies -- the Basic Payment Scheme and sustainable land use (Greening) payments -- are de jure specific is illegal and defies a key past court ruling, exporters Agro Sevilla Aceitunas and Angel Camacho Alimentacion said in an April 6 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Building off a case currently at the trade court in which the court held that these subsidies are not de jure specific, Agro Sevilla and Camacho also challenged Commerce's definitions of "prior stage product" and "latter stage product," among other things (Agro Sevilla Aceitunas S. Coop. v. United States, CIT #22-00106).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 6 on AD/CVD proceedings: