CBP ignored Congress' "unambiguous express statutory command when it failed to distribute" interest assessed after liquidation, known as delinquency interest, under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, appellant Monterey Mushrooms said in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Adee Honey Farms, et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2105).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted U.S. Steel Corp.'s motion to voluntarily dismiss its appeal on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test as part of its differential pricing analysis to root out "masked" dumping (SeAH Steel Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1109). In this case and a separate appeal on the same issue, the court acknowledged that Maverick Tube Corp., Tenaris Bay City and IPSCO Tubulars will no longer participate in the proceedings. The opening brief in this matter, appealed by exporter SeAH Steel Corp., is due 60 days from May 4. The remaining appellees following the departure of the three companies are the U.S., U.S. Steel Corp., Vallourec Star and Welded Tube USA (SeAH Steel Corp. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1657).
The Court of International Trade should reject U.S. steel company Nucor Corp.'s stay motion in a case involving the 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea, the U.S. argued. While Nucor wants the case stayed pending the resolution of litigation on the 2018 review of the same CVD order, the present action involves an issue not raised in the preceding case, the government said (Nucor Corp. v. United States, CIT #23-00003).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected importer China Custom Manufacturing's rehearing bid in an antidumping and countervailing duty scope case. In the decision, Judges Pauline Newman, Raymond Chen and Tiffany Cunningham said CCM's solar panel mounts do not qualify for the "finished merchandise" exclusion from antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (see 2303020037). In its rehearing motion, CCM said that rehearing was needed to maintain uniformity of the appellate court's prior decisions concerning the "unambiguous plain language" of the finished merchandise exclusion rule. The rehearing bid was referred to the three judges that heard the case, then sent to the remaining active judges on the court (China Custom Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1345).
The Court of International Trade upheld the finding of CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings (ORR) that MSeafood Corp. did not evade antidumping duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from India by transshipping the products through Vietnam, in a decision released to the public May 4. Judge Claire Kelly said that CBP in its affirmative evasion finding failed to consider evidence showing exporter Minh Phu Group's tracing system is reliable and arbitrarily transformed a single instance of evasion into an evasion finding for a whole year.
The Commerce Department dropped its presumption that exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. was controlled by the Chinese government after the Court of International Trade questioned whether the agency could disregard an individually selected respondent's data in favor of the country-wide non-market economy rate. In its remand results to the trade court, Commerce assigned Jilin a zero percent dumping rate using the company's actual submissions during an antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. v. United States, CIT # 18-00191).
The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed a suit from fireworks importer Jake's Fireworks concerning the Consumer Product Safety Commission's determination that the company's "Excalibur" line of fireworks constitutes a banned hazardous substance under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act. Judge Theodore Chuang said the CPSC's notices of noncompliance do not amount to final agency action, depriving Jake's Fireworks of the right to challenge the notices as having violated the Administrative Procedure Act (Jake's Fireworks v. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, D. Md. 2023)
The Commerce Department erred by calculating a single weighted-averge steel plate cost for all home and U.S. market sales in the 2020-21 antidumping duty administrative review on utility scale wind towers from South Korea, respondent Dongkuk S&C Co. argued in a complaint at the Court of International Trade. In the review, Commerce disregarded the actual steel plate costs linked with each individual project, via cost "smoothing" (Dongkuk S&C Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00075).
The Commerce Department can't use total adverse facts available for countervailing duty respondent The Ancientree Cabinet Co.'s alleged use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade ruled in a decision released to the public May 3. While Ancientree only submitted loan information for most but not all of its customers, the trade court found perfection is not required to verify non-use of the program.