Mayer Brown wants nearly $3 million in legal fees over a False Claims Act case it won for Island Industries in which a California district court said that Japanese manufacturer Sigma Corporation avoided antidumping duties. Petitioning the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Mayer Brown said that the $3 million request for fees, costs and expenses -- amounting to around 11.3% of the total judgment -- is "eminitely reasonably and justified" given Sigma's complex defense of its actions in multiple venues (United States v. Vandewater International, C.D. Cal. #17-04393).
Exporter China Customs Manufacturing's solar panel mount assemblies are "fully and completely assembled" at the time they're imported, thus qualifying for a finished merchandise exclusion from the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China, CCM argued. Filing its opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on March 8, CCM, along with Greentec Engineering, argued that the record shows that the solar panel mount assemblies satisfy each of the requirements for the exclusion, including being fully assembled at the time of entry (China Custom Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1345).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled March 11 that there's not enough evidence to back the Commerce Department's position that a particular market situation existed affecting inputs for oil country tubular goods in an antidumping duty administrative review on OCTG from South Korea. Affirming the Court of International Trade, the Federal Circuit said there's no evidence for three of the five factors Commerce alleged created a PMS. The appellate court also rejected Commerce's reliance on its differential pricing analysis to detect "masked" dumping since certain conditions for the statistical test used by Commerce were not met.
The Court of International Trade remanded an Enforce and Protect Act challenge, per the U.S.' request, to give CBP a chance to fix the record after it found out that parties to the investigation weren't given certain documents in the investigation. The case involves a CBP investigation of allegations that Norca Industrial Co. evaded antidumping duties on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China by transshipping its imports through Vietnam. The documents include those relating to a third party's photos and videos from a site visit to manufacturer BW Fittings' Vietnam facility. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves granted the remand solely for the "full consideration of the complete record" and declined to "opine" on other issues raised by Norca.
The Commerce Department gave itself more time to consider whether to begin an anti-circumvention inquiry on solar cells from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, in a March 9 memo. The petition alleges that Chinese solar panel manufacturers have shifted manufacturing to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to circumvent the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on solar cells and modules from China (see 2202090060).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices March 10 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Spare tires imported by Cheng Shen Rubber USA are not covered by antidumping duties on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from Taiwan (A-583-869), the Commerce Department said in a recent scope ruling. The three models of spare tires, which Cheng Shen said “are used exclusively as temporary-use, spare tires for light trucks and may not be used as regular-service tires,” meet each of the four criteria for an exclusion for spare tires from the AD/CVD orders, Commerce said. They are marketed exclusively as temporary spare tires, are made in the size designations listed in the scope, have the words “temporary use only” or “spare” molded into the sidewall, have a tread depth below 6.2 mm, and do not have a UTQG rating molded into the sidewall, Commerce said.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade should deny Chinese exporter Jangho Group's bid for a rehearing in a countervailing duty case filed to contest Commerce's alleged failure to address the company's alternative arguments, the U.S. said in a March 9 reply brief. Jangho last raised the "long gone" arguments in 2019, and failed to raise its alternative arguments in its post-remand brief, meaning they are "waived" and thus not eligible for further litigation, DOJ argued (Taizhou United Imp. & Exp. Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. #16-00009).
The Uruguay Round Agreements Act taken as a whole authorizes expedited countervailing duty reviews, the governments of Quebec and New Brunswick along with six Canadian companies argued in a March 8 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. When taking into account the context of the URAA, its legislative history and the legislative process through which the URAA was adopted, it's clear that Congress meant to establish an expedited review process, the Canadian parties argued.