The Commerce Department cannot use an antidumping evasion finding to reject AD review respondent Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited's (ZASF) Vietnamese data when calculating normal value, the Court of International Trade said in an April 19 opinion. Since ZASF is not mentioned in the Enforce and Protect Act investigation cited by Commerce as the basis for rejecting the Vietnamese data, it is not clear how the agency decided that some of ZASF's Vietnamese sales ultimately wound up in the U.S., Judge Gary Katzmann said.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department properly decided not to individually investigate Siemens Energy's Spanish subsidiary Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) in an antidumping duty investigation, DOJ and AD petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition argued in two reply briefs at the Court of International Trade. DOJ said that the law is silent over how Commerce must proceed when all the initially picked respondents withdraw from the investigation, while the WTTC argued that it's not uncommon for Commerce to replace a mandatory respondent late in an investigation (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy v. United States, CIT #21-00449).
The Commerce Department and the Court of International Trade properly held that China Custom Manufacturing's solar panel mounts do not qualify for the finished goods exclusion from the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China, DOJ argued in an April 18 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. CCM, along with importer Greentec Engineering, ask Commerce to apply an outdated interpretation of the exclusion that doesn't consider key precedent from the Federal Circuit, the U.S. said (China Custom Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1345).
The Commerce Department continued to rely on adverse facts available in a countervailing duty case on remand at the Court of International Trade, holding that respondent Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi failed to act to the best of its ability when providing certain information about a Turkish government subsidiary. While it dropped AFA over Celik Halat's Section III of the initial CVD questionnaire, as instructed by the court, the agency still used AFA over Celik Halat's failure to respond to the Standard Questions Appendix of the Tax Program Appendix for the subsidy (Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi A.S. v. U.S., CIT #21-00050).
The Commerce Department reasonably found that exporter Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co.'s tires did not qualify for a scope exclusion for light truck spare tires despite the petitioner agreeing to include specific exclusion language for Cheng Shin's tires, DOJ said in an April 13 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The exclusion requires that the tires be designed and marketed exclusively as temporary use spare tires for light trucks, and enough evidence sits on the record showing that this wasn't the case for Cheng Shin, the brief said (Cheng Shin Rubber Ind. Co. v. United States, CIT #21-00398).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on April 14 granted a bid from plaintiffs-appellants Deacero and Deacero USA to stay the briefing schedule in an antidumping duty challenge, pending the results of a related matter. Both cases concern whether the Commerce Department can deduct Section 232 duties from an antidumping duty respondent's U.S. price in the dumping margin calculations (Deacero S.A.P.I. de C.V. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1486).
The Commerce Department slashed antidumping duties for exporter BlueScope Steel from 99.20% to 4.95% after dropping its reliance on adverse facts available, on remand at the Court of International Trade in an April 14 submission. After issuing a supplemental questionnaire to BlueScope during remand proceedings and accepting the exporter's quantity and value data, Commerce said that AFA was no longer warranted (BlueScope Steel Ltd. v. United States, CIT #19-00057).
The Court of International Trade ordered in an April 15 opinion that exporter Oman Fasteners shall make duty deposits for potential Section 232 steel and aluminum duty liability on all entries affected by its case challenging the validity of certain Section 232 duties. Oman Fasteners requested that the court should establish and administer an escrow account throughout the stay period pending an appeal of the court's decision. A three-judge panel said that the court was not convinced that setting up an escrow account is better than depositing estimated Section 232 duties for affected entries.
The U.S. was granted a voluntary remand in an antidumping duty and countervailing duty evasion case at the Court of International Trade. In its motion requesting the remand, CBP told the court that a remand is needed in light of arguments by the plaintiffs that the evasion finding is based on insufficient evidence. In particular, DOJ said that CBP needed to address logistical gaps in the feasibility of an alleged transshipment scheme and criticism of perceived inconsistencies in the materials submitted by the importers and the company accused of transshipping. Each of the three plaintiffs' counsel consented to the move (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00198).