The Commerce Department has failed to address the flaws found in the use of the Cohen's d test when using its differential pricing analysis (DPA) to detect "masked" dumping, exporter SeAH Steel Corp. argued in a reply brief at the Court of International Trade. Responding to the U.S.'s argument that SeAH has failed to point to any statistical texts that explicitly address Commerce's claim that it can properly use the test, the exporter said that the burden is on the agency to find supportive texts and not merely rely on the silence of statistical authorities (Stupp Corp. v. United States, CIT #15-00334).
Amazon and Cartier filed two cases in a Washington state district court on June 15 accusing a Chinese influencer and a spate of Chinese companies of selling knock-off Cartier jewelry on Amazon's website. According to the one of the complaints filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, a Handan, China-based woman used social media sites like Instagram to sell knockoff Cartier jewelry such as bracelets marketed as "Love bracelets." The influencer goes by the username "Phmn9y3v."
The Court of International Trade in a June 17 opinion denied exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing's and importer C&U Americas' bid for an injunction against cash deposits at the antidumping duty rate decided in the 2019-20 review of the AD order on tapered roller bearings from China. Judge Stephen Vaden said that the plaintiffs failed to establish a likelihood to succeed on the merits or suffer irreparable harm and that the balance of equities and public interest favored the U.S. government.
CBP reasonably denied customs broker test taker Shuzhen Zhong credit for two questions on the customs broker license exam, the U.S. argued in a June 17 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. In the brief, DOJ discussed the two questions at issue, defending CBP's rulings on the classification of glazed ceramic mosaic cubes and how to obtain relief from CBP's detention of a shipment of 1,000 handbags bearing a mark that copies but is not identical to a registered and recorded mark (Shuzhen Zhong v. United States, CIT #22-00041).
New Hampshire-based company Intertech Trading Corp. violated the law when it failed to file export information for equipment it sent to Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. alleged in a filing at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.The parts, which included laser assemblies, were "falsely described" as aquarium and multimedia parts and valued at lower amounts than their actual worth, DOJ said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit held in a June 16 opinion that window covering manufacturer Springs Window Fashions did not illegally fire customs broker Jennifer Lam-Quang-Vinh over her position that the company had to pay Section 301 China tariffs. Judges Diane Sykes, Michael Brennan and Michael Scudder said that the record evidence does not support Lam's position that she was fired in retaliation (Jennifer Lam-Quang-Vinh v. Springs Window Fashions, 7th Cir. #21-2665).
The Commerce Department properly used the expected method to determine the non-selected respondent's rate in an antidumping duty review of steel nails from Taiwan, the Court of International Trade said in a June 16 opinion. Judge Mark Barnett ruled that the burden was on the plaintiffs, led by PrimeSource Building Products, to establish that the expected method -- the practice of averaging adverse facts available rates in the absence of non-AFA, zero or de minimis margins -- should not be used. The judge ruled that the plaintiffs gave no evidence to back their claim that the expected method was not reasonably reflective of their actual margins.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its mandate June 16 in two cases contesting whether the Commerce Department properly modified the scope of its antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on quartz surface products from China in response to evasion. Building materials company Bruskin International argued that Commerce was wrong to accept the petitioner's scope request, claiming that the agency should have treated it as a request to amend the petition. In the opinion, the appellate court held that the agency is not bound to the preliminary scope and that it had properly changed the scope under its own authority and not per the petitioner's request (see 2204250029) (M S International, et al. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #21-1679, -1680).
The Commerce Department properly dropped its particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test, the Court of International Trade held in a June 16 opinion. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said that since the question of whether Commerce can make such an adjustment was settled in the key Hyundai Steel v. U.S. case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, "the court need not waste its or the Parties' resources any further."