The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. has yet to appear in a case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the 2019-20 antidumping duty administrative review on aluminum wire and cable from China brought by importer Repwire and exporter Jin Tiong Electrical Materials Manufacturer. The appeal concerns a Court of International Trade decision upholding the Commerce Department's withdrawal of a separate-rate questionnaire it erroneously issued to Jin Tiong (see 2303200039). In a text-only notice to the U.S., the Federal Circuit said that the government has failed to file an entry of appearance, which could lead to dismissal "or other action as deemed appropriate by the court" (Repwire v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1933).
The Court of International Trade June 9 upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in a suit on the administrative review of the antidumping duty order covering multilayered wood flooring from China. Judge Richard Eaton sustained the AD review after exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. signed off on Commerce's redetermination dropping the company's dumping rate to zero. On remand, the agency dropped the presumption the Chinese government controlled Jilin Forest after Eaton questioned whether Commerce could disregard a mandatory respondent's own data in favor of the countrywide nonmarket economy rate (see 2305040061). Jilin Forest counsel Lizbeth Levinson of Fox Rothschild previously told Trade Law Daily an appeal is unlikely, given that it opens up further scrutiny of the agency's NME policy in AD reviews (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring v. U.S., CIT # 18-00191).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied customs broker license exam test taker Byungmin Chae's combined petition for panel rehearing and rehearing en banc of the appellate court's opinion landing him just one question short of passing the exam taken in April 2018. The court said Chae's petition was referred to the panel that heard the case, comprising Judges Pauline Newman, Sharon Prost and Kimberly Hughes, and was then circulated to all the judges in regular active service. A month prior, the court rejected duplicates of Chae's petition seemingly filed in error.
Tire exporter Pirelli's claim that the labelling of its board members as "independent" under Italian law requires the Commerce Department to find that the company rebutted the presumption of Chinese state control "misses the mark," the Court of International Trade ruled on June 9. Again upholding the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said the question for Commerce is whether Pirelli rebutted the presumption of Chinese state control, not control by another company, which is what the "independent" label measures.
The U.S. demanded a jury in a customs penalty suit filed against Florida businessman Zhe "John" Liu and one of his companies, AB MA Distribution, in a June 8 notice at the Court of International Trade. The government asked for the jury "on all issues of fact, including the quantum of penalties owed." The U.S. filed the suit to collect over $10 million in unpaid duties and penalties from Liu and AB MA, alleging that the parties transshipped steel wire hangers via India and Thailand to avoid paying antidumping and other duties on steel wire hangers from China (see 2306080027) (U.S. v. Zhe "John" Liu and AB MA Distribution Corporation, CIT # 23-00116).
The Court of International Trade will issue an opinion in a case brought by three conservation groups seeking to compel the Interior Department to decide whether Mexico is engaging in illegal trade and fishing of endangered wildlife, Judge Gary Katzmann said at a June 7 status conference. The judge will author an opinion despite the fact that the conservation groups moved to dismiss the suit after a settlement was reached where Interior determined Mexican nationals are violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (see 2306020054). Government lawyer Agatha Koprowski even added during the conference that there is "no further need for this court to take any action" given that the conservation groups' claim had been addressed. Interior's finding could lead to an embargo on any goods coming from Mexico (Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. United States, CIT # 22-00339).
Federal Circuit judges cautioned counsel for importer Katana Racing against arguing whether the U.S. actually stated a claim for which relief can be granted, despite the fact that the Court of International Trade dismissed the case due to an expired statute of limitations. During the June 7 oral argument in the customs penalty suit, Judge Alvin Schall pointed out that the CIT judge did not decide the failure to state a claim issue, while Judge Todd Hughes said he thought it was "very unwise" to make this claim, seeing as argument over the issue would be precluded at the trade court if the appellate court were to rule on it (U.S. v. Katana Racing, Fed. Cir. # 22-1832).
The Court of International Trade granted the Commerce Department's request for a remand to reconsider its calculations of constructed value, CV profit cap and constructed export price profit for countervailing duty respondent Hyundai Steel in the 2019-20 review of the CVD order on oil country tubular goods from South Korea. Hyundai claimed that Commerce's use of exporter SeAH Steel Corp.'s third-country sales data for calculating these figures unreasonably used data that failed to represent Hyundai's actual experience.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: