The Senate Finance Committee held a confirmation hearing on April 10 for William Kimmitt to serve as undersecretary of commerce for international trade. In this role, Kimmitt would lead the International Trade Administration, the wing of the Commerce Department tasked with enforcing antidumping and countervailing duty laws.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 11 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department unreasonably failed to consider information in a scope ruling application regarding calcium glycinate and an International Trade Commission report in excluding the calcium glycinate from various antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on glycine, the Court of International Trade held on April 10. Judge Joseph Laroski called out Commerce for pulling a "single insight" from the ITC report "while inexplicably ignoring other pertinent information" in the report.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 10 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Lumber exporter Fontaine asked the Court of International Trade to order the Commerce Department to issue a Timken notice "setting Fontaine's cash deposit rate at 0.00%," reiterating the agency's intent to exclude the company from the countervailing duty order on softwood lumber from Canada and directing CBP to refund Fontaine's CVD cash deposits (Fontaine v. United States, CIT # 19-00154).
Exporter Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co. is contesting a number of decisions the Commerce Department made during an antidumping duty investigation on paper plates from China, including the agency's surrogate selection, its finding of critical circumstances, its valuation of Fuzhou Hengli’s factors of production and its assignment of total adverse facts available to the exporter in (Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co. v. U.S., CIT # 25-00064).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit questioned both exporters Guizhou Tyre Co. and Aeolus Tyre Co. and the U.S. government during oral argument on the exporters' challenge to the Commerce Department's finding that Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus didn't show independence from Chinese state control in the seventh review of the antidumping duty order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires from China (Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #s 23-2163, -2165).
The Court of International Trade on April 10 sent back the Commerce Department's scope ruling excluding calcium glycinate from the scope of the antidumping duty orders on glycine from India, Japan and Thailand and the countervailing duty orders on glycine from India and China. Judge Joseph Laroski said Commerce acted "unreasonably" by failing to analyze whether the glycinate is a form of crude or technical glycine, notwithstanding the agency's finding that the glycinate is a precursor of dried crystaline glycine. Laroski also said the agency acted "unreasonably" in failing to consider information in the scope ruling application and an International Trade Commission report undermining its conclusion.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 9 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Court of International Trade on April 8 set aside the dismissal of a customs suit brought by Printing Textiles, doing business as Berger Textiles, which was dropped for lack of prosecution. Judge Mark Barnett re-added the case to the Customs Case Management Calendar after the importer said it overlooked the deadline in the case to remain on the calendar due to a "calendaring mistake." Berger said no material delay stems from this mistake and that the U.S. didn't oppose re-adding the case to the calendar. Berger's case concerns whether coated fabric imports were properly subject to antidumping duties (see 2303150073) (Printing Textiles v. United States, CIT # 23-00062).