The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 11 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The Commerce Department decided against excluding water-soluble thermal paper and phenol-free jumbo roll thermal paper from an antidumping duty investigation into thermal paper imports from German, Japan, South Korea and Spain, in a May 5 preliminary scope memorandum. In deciding not to exclude both product types from the antidumping duty order, Commerce cited deference given to the petitioners of the AD case when defining the scope of the order. Petitioners in this investigation, Appvion Operations, Inc. and Domtar Corporation, opposed the proposed scope exclusions.
Following a second remand order from the Court of International Trade, the Commerce Department dropped a downward adjustment for irrecoverable value-added tax from Chinese tire exporter Qingdao Sentury Co.'s export price in an antidumping case in its second remand determination. Sentury's antidumping rate dropped from 4.42% to 2.26%, leaving both Sentury and the government defense to sign off on Commerce's remand in May 7 filings from the exporter and DOJ, setting up a final decision from Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves. Reversing itself under respectful protest, Commerce only dropped the VAT from the export price after Choe-Groves found that the VAT is not an export tax but rather a domestic tax presumed to be included in the price of the subject good.
The Court of International Trade on May 11 sustained on the second remand the Commerce Department’s 2016-17 antidumping duty administrative review on activated carbon from China.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices May 10 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Two cases challenging the final determination in the less than fair value investigation of forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany were consolidated following a May 7 order from the Court of International Trade. Judge Stephen Vaden joined cases from Ellwood City Forge and BGH Edelstahl Siegen GmbH because both contest parts of the investigation that led to the antidumping duty order on the forged steel fluid end blocks. Following the investigation, the Commerce Department allegedly failed to verify information and reach conclusions based on substantial evidence, both plaintiffs say.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted a preliminary injunction for Chinese big data processing technology company Luokung Technology Corp., temporarily blocking the company's designation as a Chinese military company. Judge Rudolph Contreras issued the injunction in a May 5 ruling, finding it likely Luokung would prevail in its case against the designation. The publicly traded Chinese tech giant claims that the Communist Chinese Military Company (CCMC) designation issued by the Department of Defense was made in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, was arbitrary and capricious, and that the evidence in hand was not substantial enough to support a finding of state control over the company.
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's second remand results that scrapped the adverse facts available rate in a countervailing duty case, in a May 6 opinion. Judge Richard Eaton found that Commerce's eventual decision to ditch the AFA subsidy rate relating to alleged benefits that exporter Heze Huayi Chemical Co. received from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program was consistent with prior remand instructions. Plaintiffs Clearon and Occidental Chemical initially filed the challenge, claiming that the AFA rate for Heze relating to the EBCP was too low and inconsistent with prior Commerce practice.
The Court of International Trade remanded the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available in an antidumping case, finding that the agency did not allow for proper notice and response from South Korean steel exporter Hyundai Steel Co. In an April 27 opinion made public on May 6, Judge Richard Eaton ruled that Commerce also violated its statutory authority by assigning the all-others rate to one of Hyundai's affiliated freight companies -- dubbed “Company A” in the opinion. On remand, Commerce was instructed to identify the precise data that it judged insufficient and give Hyundai an opportunity to fix the deficiency.