The Commerce Department essentially “committed fraud” against a Chinese shrimp exporter that had been revoked from an antidumping duty order but, because of Commerce’s own misspelling that the agency refuses to correct, found itself years later participating in an administrative review and being assigned an AD duty cash deposit rate, the exporter said in a brief filed April 26 at the Court of International Trade (Shantou Red Garden Food Processing Co., Ltd. et al v. U.S., CIT # 20-03947).
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Steel importer Norca Industrial Company filed a challenge to an affirmative Enforce and Protect Act determination, claiming that CBP did not have a legal basis to initiate the investigation and violated its due process rights. In an April 27 complaint in the Court of International Trade, Norca made six claims against its EAPA investigation, including on the constitutionality of the process and whether CBP unfairly made adverse inferences against the company to determine that evasion took place (Norca Industrial Company LLC v. U.S., CIT # 21-00192).
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 27 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The Commerce Department on April 27 issued antidumping duty orders on common alloy aluminum sheet from Bahrain (A-525-001), Brazil (A-351-854), Croatia (A-891-001), Egypt (A-729-803), Germany (A-428-849), India (A-533-895), Indonesia (A-560-835), Italy (A-475-842), Oman (A-523-814), Romania (A-485-809), Serbia (A-801-001), Slovenia (A-856-001), South Africa (A-791-825), Spain (A-469-820), Taiwan (A-583-867) and Turkey (A-489-839), and countervailing duty orders on common alloy aluminum sheet from Bahrain (C-525-002), India (C-533-896) and Turkey (C-489-840). The International Trade Commission published its final injury determination April 26.
Target Corporation launched a case in the Court of International Trade challenging one of the court's own decisions to order the reliquidation of metal top ironing tables at a higher antidumping duty rate. In an April 23 complaint, Target claimed that CIT's order, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision to uphold the order, to reliquidate the ironing tables at a higher 72.29% antidumping duty rate is illegal since the order came 90 days after the goods were liquidated by CBP.
CBP can still collect unpaid antidumping duties on a customs bond despite waiting nearly eight years after the relevant entries liquidated before demanding payment, the Justice Department said in a brief filed April 23. Aegis Security Insurance Co., which acted as surety on 10 entries of fresh garlic from China that was deemed liquidated 2006, says the statute of limitations had expired on the bond by the time CBP billed Aegis for the full continuous bond amount, $50,000, in 2014. “Because a customs bond is a contract, the [Federal Circuit] has held that a cause of action to enforce its obligations accrues when the terms of the bond are breached,” DOJ said. “In this case, the terms of the bond at issue were not breached by Aegis until CBP made a demand for payment against Aegis and Aegis failed to pay the duties within the time required by law.”
James Holbein, of counsel at Braumiller Law Group, was appointed to the roster of people available to serve on the USMCA Chapter 10 panels, the firm announced in an April 20 news release. The Chapter 10 panels are established at the request of industry seeking alternative courts to adjudicate antidumping and countervailing duty matters.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission April 23 released the following notices, set for Federal Register publication April 26, on AD/CV duty proceedings: