The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices June 1 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department acted within its authority when it decided not to include the views of countertop fabricators in its industry support determination before beginning antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on quartz surface products from India, the Department of Justice said in a brief filed May 26 responding to an importer’s motion for judgment in the case.
South Korean wind tower maker CS Wind didn't receive any special benefit from the Import Duty Exemptions on Raw Materials for Exported Goods program and actually overreported information on its raw material inputs, making the application of adverse facts available improper, the Department of Justice argued. In a May 26 reply brief, DOJ responded to a challenge from the Wind Tower Trade Coalition claiming that the Commerce Department erred in not applying AFA to CS Wind in a countervailing duty investigation of utility-scale wind towers from Vietnam. WTTC argued that certain inputs of steel plate, a raw material in the wind towers, could have actually been imported instead of made in Vietnam (Wind Tower Trade Coalition v. United States, CIT #20-03692).
The Department of Justice is debating with Chinese cabinet exporter Delian Meisen Woodworking Co. over whether the Commerce Department can construe false advertising materials as grounds to apply adverse facts available in antidumping proceedings. In an April 5 revised response revised again on May 26, DOJ argued that Meisen's inability to explain a discrepancy between its U.S. sales price and factors of production information resulting from false advertising lawfully led to Commerce applying AFA. Meisen in its corrected reply is fighting to establish that Commerce's antidumping investigations must be limited to the actual factors of production used to make the subject merchandise, lest AD proceedings be used to “take responsibility for enforcing a wide variety of U.S. laws and unfair business practices under the antidumping laws” (Dalian Meisen Woodworking Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-00109).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 28 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
CBP intends to distribute assessed antidumping or countervailing duties for fiscal year 2021 under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 (CDSOA), it said in a notice. Certifications to obtain a continued dumping and subsidy offset under a particular AD/CV order or finding must be received by July 27.
The Department of Justice wants a stay in a case involving the Commerce Department's use of its non-market economy policy, arguing that issues in a related appeals court case have implications for the case in the Court of International Trade. In a May 25 motion, DOJ argued that since the Federal Circuit case, China Manufacturers Alliance, LLC v. United States, Fed. Cir. #2020-1159, deals with whether the statute authorizes Commerce to apply a China-wide rate to an exporter that failed to show freedom from government control in an antidumping investigation, the outcome of the case will "likely impact the outcome of this remand" (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co., Ltd., v. United States, CIT #18-00191). In the CIT case, the court remanded an antidumping investigation on multilayered wood flooring, finding that the agency's determination that Chinese exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group was de facto controlled by the Chinese government lacked substantial evidence (see 2104300079). The decision took issue with Commerce's application of the China-wide rate to Jilin, given that Commerce's NME policy was meant to incentivize greater compliance and Jilin fully complied with all Commerce requests.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should rule that pencil importer Prime Time exhausted its administrative options by asking the Commerce Department five times for "gap-filling" information that was necessary to determine the correct antidumping duty rate, the company said in a May 26 filing with the CAFC. The company "seeks remand here, directing the Trade Court to instruct Commerce to place gap-filling information only Commerce can access on the record to give Prime Time the meaningful opportunity provided by the statute to show the margin for its entries to be less than the highest prior margin," it said in its opening brief.
The Court of International Trade on May 27 upheld remand results from the Commerce Department that reversed a scope ruling that included ready-to-assemble kitchen cabinets in antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China. While the agency continued to hold the request for the scope ruling was specific enough, despite concerns in his initial remand from Judge Gary Katzmann, Commerce on further examination found that the scope requests lacked sufficient supporting evidence and explanation.