Kazakh exporter Tau-Ken Temir filed a corrected version of its opening brief in a countervailing duty case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit after the court rejected the company's efforts to add new claims to its originally filed brief (see 2306300060). The government and petitioners Globe Specialty Metals and Mississippi Silicon fought against the effort to add new claims to the brief, claiming that it was an attempt to shoehorn arguments on the agency's new regulations concerning untimely submitted files. The new brief filed by TKT makes corrections requested by the clerk of the court in a case on the CVD investigation on silicon metal from Kazakhstan in which the Commerce Department used adverse facts available due to a missed filing deadline (Tau-Ken Temir v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).
The Commerce Department legally weight-averaged or "smoothed" antidumping duty respondent Dongkuk S&C Co.'s "disparate" steel plate costs in the AD investigation on utility scale wind towers from South Korea, the government and petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition argued in a pair of reply briefs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dongkuk S&C Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1419).
The Court of International Trade in a July 13 opinion dismissed a lawsuit from PrimeSource Building Products against President Donald Trump's move to expand Section 232 national security tariffs onto steel and aluminum "derivative" products pursuant to the mandate issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
The Court of International Trade in a July 12 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's decision on voluntary remand to slash from 82.05% to 41.03% the antidumping duty rate for the separate rate respondents in the 2016-17 review on diamond sawblades from China. The case had been stayed pending the resolution of a case on the previous administrative review, Bosun Tools Co. v. U.S., in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed Commerce's move to similarly cut the separate rate.
CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings (ORR) ignored key evidence when it reversed the same agency's Trade Remedy & Law Enforcement Directorate's (TRLED) finding that importer Scioto Valley Woodworking evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on wooden cabinets and vanities from China, petitioner American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance said in a July 11 complaint at the Court of International Trade (American Kitchen Cabinet Alliance v. U.S., CIT # 23-00140).
The fourth "Fish Week" negotiations on fisheries subsidies opened at the World Trade Organization July 10 with the chair, Iceland's Einar Gunnarsson, fielding members' views on what parts from various proposals submitted by different countries would form the basis of the text-based talks in the fall, according to the WTO. Members are aiming to reach an agreement at the 13th Ministerial Conference set for February. The WTO will hold a July 19 meeting to discuss the "technical work related to the operation of the future Committee on Fisheries Subsidies," which will be established when the original fisheries deal, struck at MC12, comes into force. WTO Deputy Director-General Angela Ellard said "now is the right time to deepen the discussions and identify elements and approaches for the starting point of text-based negotiations in the fall."
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The False Claims Act's scienter element, which says a person must have "knowingly" made false statements, refers to a defendant's knowledge and subjective beliefs and not to what an objectively reasonable person may have known or believed, the U.S. said in an amicus brief invited by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Citing recent Supreme Court precedent from U.S. ex rel. Schute v. SuperValu, the U.S. said the appeals court should reject importer Sigma Corp.'s arguments to the contrary in a case on whether the company violated the False Claims Act by filing false customs forms to evade antidumping duties (Island Industries v. Sigma Corp., 9th Cir. # 22-55063).
The U.S. and importer Pacific World reached a settlement regarding the classification of artificial nails, Michael Roll, counsel for the importer, confirmed to Trade Law Daily. The settlement led to the dismissal of 15 cases at the Court of International Trade that were suspended pending resolution of a test case, also brought by Pacific World, which was resolved in 2016.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a July 11 opinion affirmed the Court of International Trade's opinion upholding the Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available against countervailing duty respondent Jangho Group in a case on the 2013 review of the CVD order on aluminum extrusions from China. The two-page order from Judges Kimberly Moore, Alan Lourie and Tiffany Cunningham was issued without an explanation of the ruling.