Jacob Kopnick

Importers Wego International Floors, Galleher Corp. and Galleher LLC will appeal a Court of International Trade case on the 2016-17 review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. The trade court sustained the Commerce Department's decision to weight average zero percent and adverse facts available antidumping rates to set the AD mark for the non-individually examined respondents (see 2409180044). CIT previously remanded Commerce's decision to use a simple average of the zero and AFA rates, instructing the agency to use a weighted average of the marks. The result was a 31.63% AD rate for the separate rate companies (Fusong Jinlong Wooden Group Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00144).

The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Mediation at the Court of International Trade resulted in a settlement of all issues in importer Valbruna Slater Stainless' suit on the Commerce Department's denials of its Section 232 steel tariff exclusion requests. Judge Leo Gordon served as mediator and told the court on Nov. 12 that the mediation settled the case (Valbruna Slater Stainless v. United States, CIT # 21-00027).

CBP and an importer reached a settlement in four customs cases on the classification of the company's photoresists. The goods were classified by CBP under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 3707.90.32, covering certain chemical preparations for photographic uses, dutiable at 6.5%. The agency agreed to liquidate the entries as sensitizing emulsions under subheading 3707.10.00, dutiable at 3%. The cases were brought by Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America, formerly known as Ohka America, and cover hundreds of the company's entries (Ohka America v. U.S., CIT #s 04-00583, 05-00292) (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America v. U.S., CIT #s 10-00243, 17-00067).

The EU and Taiwan settled the EU's dispute at the World Trade Organization on Taiwan's offshore wind auctions, the bloc's Directorate-General for Trade announced Nov. 8. The EU said Taiwan committed to "introducing greater flexibility in the way the winning projects from the latest auction are taken forward."

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York this month denied a request from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. to help the company obtain access to certain discovery documents that are restricted by the Bureau of Industry and Security. Judge Cheryl Pollak said that while DOJ marked hundreds of thousands of documents at a lower level of classification than BIS, which would give Huawei greater access to the records, the documents are "still subject to further review by BIS" (United States v. Huawei Technologies, E.D.N.Y. # 18-00457).

Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Nov. 7 sharply questioned both exporter Oman Fasteners' missed deadline in an antidumping duty review and petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire's defense of the 154.33% adverse facts available rate imposed as a result. Judge Kimberly Moore led the way during oral argument, taking Oman Fasteners' attorney Michael Huston to task for seemingly hiding the missed deadline (Oman Fasteners v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1661).

Tomato exporters led by NS Brands failed to show good cause to untimely intervene in a case on the Commerce Department's 1996 antidumping duty investigation on Mexican tomatoes, petitioner The Florida Tomato Exchange argued on Nov. 8. The petitioner said NS Brands knew when the case started that the parties were challenging Commerce's failure to continue the proceeding and "has shown no reason it could not have timely intervened in this proceeding" (Bioparques de Occidente v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00204).

The U.S. argued that mandamus relief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is improper on the question of whether the government properly served exporter Koehler Paper through its U.S. counsel. Responding on Nov. 6 to Koehler's petition for writ of mandamus, the U.S. said mandamus relief isn't "clear and indisputable" and that an appeal from a final order from the Court of International Trade "should not be inadequate" (In re Koehler Oberkirch GmbH, Fed. Cir. # 25-106).

The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's decision on remand to not apply partial adverse facts available against exporter Garg Tube in the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on welded carbon steel standard pipes and tubes from India. Judge Claire Kelly issued a confidential decision deciding the matter, giving the parties until Nov. 14 to review the confidential information in the opinion (Garg Tube Export v. U.S., CIT # 21-00169).