A host of Indian stainless steel flange exporters challenged the Commerce Department's final results of the first administrative review of the antidumping duty order on the subject flanges, in an Oct. 23 complaint at the Court of International Trade. In the complaint's two counts, the exporters are contesting Commerce's determination of the "all other" rate since it was derived using an adverse facts available rate for one of the respondents, and the agency's failure to calculate a dumping margin for respondent Chandan based on its own information instead of relying on AFA (Echjay Forgings Private Limited, et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00542).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit released its mandate Oct. 22 for its decision backing the Commerce Department's rejection of data corrections submitted by an antidumping respondent. In August, the Federal Circuit reversed the Court of International Trade's decision, holding that the corrections were not "minor," meaning that Commerce was justified when it originally rejected the revisions and levied an adverse facts available AD duty rate on Goodluck India (see 2108310040). The case involved cold-drawn mechanical tubing from India (Goodluck India Limited v. United States, CIT #18-00162).
Exporter Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. failed to obtain the consent of the U.S. before it filed its motion for a statutory injunction against the liquidation of its light-truck spare tire models in an antidumping duty challenge, the Department of Justice argued in an Oct. 13 brief at the Court of International Trade. Rather, counsel for Cheng Shin completely misrepresented DOJ's position, declaring that it had the government's consent for the injunction, when it didn't, DOJ said. Opposing the scope of the injunction, which the court has already granted, DOJ also took issue with the fact that Cheng Shin applied for an "open-ended injunction" (Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. Ltd. v. U.S., CIT #21-00398).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 22 backed the Commerce Department's decision to pick Malaysia as the primary surrogate country in an antidumping duty review, despite using a Romanian company's financial statements to determine the surrogate financial ratios is backed by substantial evidence. Sustaining Commerce's remand results in the AD review, Chief Judge Mark Barnett also upheld the agency's surrogate value selection for bituminous coal, an input of the subject merchandise of the review, activated carbon, and Commerce's financial ratio calculations.
The European Union General Court dismissed a case brought by Russian steel company Novolipetsk Steel, holding in an Oct. 20 order that antidumping duties don't discriminate against goods that are subject to existing safeguard measures. Novolipetsk challenged the commission's antidumping duties on hot-rolled flat products of iron, non-alloy or other alloy steel and cold-rolled flat steel products from Russia. The commission had also established safeguard measures that applied tariff quotas for 26 categories of steel products, including the HRF and CRF goods.
Applications are due Nov. 22 for inclusion on a roster of potential panelists for USMCA dispute settlement cases involving antidumping duty proceedings and amendments to AD/CVD laws. USTR reviews its roster of 25 panelists annually, and this round will cover April 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023. Canada and Mexico also keep rosters of 25. Applicants should be of “good character and of high standing and repute, and are to be chosen strictly on the basis of their objectivity, reliability, sound judgment, and general familiarity with international trade law,” USTR said. Roster members may not be affiliated with any of the three USMCA governments, except for judges, who will be appointed to the roster “to the fullest extent practicable.”
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Oct. 25 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The Court of International Trade remanded parts and sustained parts of the Commerce Department's final determination in the antidumping investigation into utility scale wind towers from Canada in an Oct. 22 opinion. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sent back Commerce's decision to reject respondent Marmen's additional cost reconciliation information and use of the average-to-transaction methodology to discover masked dumping, while upholding the agency's weight-average of Marmen's plate costs, use of invoice dates as the date of sale, use of Marmen's reported sales of tower sections rather than complete towers, and decision not to apply facts otherwise available.
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 22 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in a case over the 11th administrative review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China. Chief Judge Mark Barnett upheld Commerce's decision to pick Malaysia over Romania as the primary surrogate country in the review, despite the fact that Commerce used the financial statements from a Romanian company to calculate the surrogate financial ratios. Barnett also sustained Commerce's surrogate value selections for bituminous coal, an input of activated carbon, and the agency's financial ratio calculations.
The following new requests for antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings were recently filed with the Commerce Department: