The Commerce Department improperly treated CBP’s initial findings in an Enforce and Protect Act Investigation as fact when it relied on them to find a sawblade importer’s submissions unreliable and used adverse facts available (AFA) in a scope proceeding, the importer, Lyke Industrial, said in comments to the agency on a preliminary scope ruling.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
CBP's process for carrying out Enforce and Protect Act investigations could eventually be found by the courts to be unconstitutional, trade lawyers Jen Diaz and David Craven of Diaz Trade Law said during an April 21 webinar. The EAPA investigations, which seek to determine if a company evaded antidumping or countervailing duty orders, are mostly secret and do not inform entities if they are being investigated or what evidence stands against them.
The Court of International Trade's newest judge, Stephen Vaden, issued his first opinion with the court on April 21, dismissing tire importer Strategic Import Supply's challenge of CBP's assessment of countervailing duties on its imports of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. Vaden found that the importer's protest was filed too late, holding the 180-day deadline for protests runs from the date of liquidation, rather than the date CBP received updated assessment instructions from Commerce after Commerce amended rates set in the relevant CV duty administrative review.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 21 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
Chests of drawers imported by Mitchell Gold are covered by antidumping duties on wooden bedroom furniture from China (A-570-970), but separately imported metal bases and drawer pulls for those chests are not, the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling issued April 19.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
In dueling submissions to the Court of International Trade following oral arguments on April 19, DOJ and Ancientree made their final cases for the best surrogate country pick in the antidumping investigation on wooden cabinets and vanities from China. In a feud over whether Commerce should have picked Malaysia or Romania, the main contention was detailed financial statements versus more comparable producers in quantity and quality of product.
The Commerce Department will reverse course on a particular market situation adjustment to production costs for the purposes of a sales-below-cost test in an antidumping review on circular welded carbon steel standard pipe and tube products from Turkey, it said in a final remand redetermination filed with the Court of International Trade April 19. But it will only do so under protest, it said, noting the Federal Circuit has yet to weigh in with binding precedent on the issue.
The Court of International Trade's newest judge, Stephen Vaden, issued his first opinion with the court on April 21, dismissing tire importer Strategic Import Supply's challenge of CBP's assessment of countervailing duties on its imports of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China.