The Commerce Department should further explain its decision to not verify customer self-certifications establishing non-use of China's Export Buyers Credit Program in a countervailing duty case, finally moving beyond the "endless loop" brought by the issue, Judge Timothy Reif of the Court of International Trade said in a May 26 opinion. In a saga reminiscent of the film Groundhog Day, according to Reif's opinion, the EBCP has been the subject of "intense litigation," prompting Reif to ask for an answer from Commerce for why it refuses to verify the customer self-certifications, leading to the application of adverse facts available for the subject goods relating to the EBCP.
The next meeting of the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body will feature a few U.S. antidumping measures, according to a May 18 release from WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Among the American measures, antidumping duties on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan, antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from Korea, and methodologies for establishing antidumping measures involving China will be on the DSB's May 28 meeting agenda. In addition, the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000 will come into focus, as the DSB releases its implementation of the recommendations adopted by the body.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 27 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated May 25 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
CBP is investigating Vivaldi Commercial and Vivaldi Interiors over allegations that the companies evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on quartz surface products from China, the agency said in a May 10 notice it recently posted. CBP began the investigation in response to allegations filed by Cambria Company, represented by Luke Meisner of Schagrin Associates.
The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's remand results reversing a scope ruling that included ready to assemble kitchen cabinets under the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China, in a May 27 opinion. Judge Gary Katzmann had originally remanded on the question of whether the scope request from petitioners in the case was specific enough to be accepted, and upon further examination Commerce found that it was not. None of the litigants challenged the remand redetermination.
A set of domestic steel producers will not be allowed to intervene in six challenges to the Commerce Department's denials of Section 232 tariff exclusions to steel importers, following a May 25 decision from the Court of International Trade. "Nevertheless," said Judge Miller Baker as he denied their motions to intervene, "the Court reiterates its willingness to entertain motions to appear as amici curiae."
The Court of International Trade remanded in part and sustained in part the Commerce Department's final results in a countervailing duty investigation on truck and bus tires from China in a May 19 opinion made public on May 26. Upholding Commerce's issuance of the CVD order and the agency's application of adverse facts available to previously unreported grants and loans by respondent Giuzhou Tyre Co., Judge Timothy Reif also sent back for further consideration Commerce's decision to apply AFA to China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, along with four other elements to its duty calculation.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 26 on AD/CV duty proceedings: