The Commerce Department switched its position on the countervailability of a South Korean sewerage fees program in Feb. 7 remand results, finding that the program is not countervailable. Commerce asked the Court of International Trade for a chance to reconsider the issue itself, ultimately coming back with the position that no benefit was preferred under the sewerage fees program and that the overall subsidy rate for countervailing duty respondent Hyundai Steel Company should be the de minimis rate of 0.49% (Hyundai Steel Company v. United States, CIT #21-00012).
There is no exception for business confidential information to the requirement that CBP provide a company subject to an antidumping duty and countervailing duty evasion investigation access to the evidence on which the agency relies, importer Royal Brush told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Feb. 4 opening brief. CBP's denial of Royal Brush's access to the BCI in the Enforce and Protect Act investigation violated its due process rights and created a "flawed process for adjudicating complaints of duty evasion," the brief said (Royal Brush Manufacturing Inc. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1226).
Far East, Ciel, APPI, InterGlobal, and Libery Woods transshipped plywood through Vietnam to evade antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China, falsely declaring the plywood was of Vietnamese origin, CBP said in a Jan. 30 Enforce and Protect Act determination.
No lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade.
The Commerce Department cannot ignore a Court of International Trade's ruling that the evidence on which the agency relied to issue a scope ruling was not valid in its scope redetermination, the Department of Justice said in a Feb. 4 brief. Replying to defendant-intervenor ASC Engineered Solutions' comments on Commerce's decision to exclude certain flanges from the scope of the antidumping duty order on cast iron pipe fittings from China, DOJ said that while it initially agreed with ASC's arguments, it cannot simply disregard the court's decision (MCC Holdings dba Crane Resistoflex v. U.S., CIT #18-00248).
The Court of International Trade reported that it settled all issues via mediation in two cases over the Commerce Department's denial of Section 232 exclusion requests. The mediation, held by Judge Leo Gordon, was ordered after the consolidated plaintiffs' request for a status conference was denied as moot. The plaintiffs wanted the status conference to discuss the availability of a remedy for already-liquidated entries, but the specifics of mediation were not made known (N. Am. Interpipe, Inc. v. U.S., CIT #20-03825) (Allegheny Technologies Incorporated, et al. v. U.S., CIT #20-03923).
CBP took exporter LB Wood Cambodia's statements "completely out of context" in an "unceasing attempt to crucify" the company in an antidumping and countervailing duty evasion investigation, plaintiff-intervenor Interglobal said in a reply brief at the Court of International Trade. CBP ascribed "the worst possible motives" to all the parties to the litigation, including LB Wood, and used "its own misstated presumption as grounds for pole-vaulting" to the conclusion that any evidence that undermines the agency's decisions is "inherently suspect," the brief said (American Pacific Plywood v. U.S., CIT #20-03914).
A U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should reconsider its wrongfully decided opinion finding that the Commerce Department cannot make a particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test in antidumping duty proceedings, three defendant-appellants told the Federal Circuit in a Feb. 2 brief. Seeking a full court hearing, Atlas Tube, Searing Industries and Nucor Tubular Products said that the decision violates D.C. Circuit precedents over the "operation of ordinary canons of statutory construction in the administrative law context," and the Federal Circuit's precedents over deference afforded to Commerce (Dong-A Steel Company v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-2153).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit affirmed a federal district court's decision to dismiss a challenge to the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development's enforcement of a federal gasoline-volatility regulation on a duty-free gas station on the Canadian border. The regulation applies to Ammex's gas station, even though the gas station sells gas only for export because cars must drive into Canada after filling up, the appeals court said (Ammex v. Gary McDowell, 6th Cir. #20-1250).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: