Plaintiff and exporter Prosperity Tieh Enterprise Co. opposed a group of U.S. steel producers' motion in an antidumping duty case to hold an oral argument, telling the Court of International Trade that the motion is "unnecessary and disingenuous." In the May 20 filing, Prosperity argued that since the case has been going on for six years and the main issue in the case -- the decision to collapse mandatory respondents Yieh Phui Enterprise Co. and Synn Industrial Co. with one of their affiliates, Prosperity -- has been "extensively briefed," the need for oral argument is precluded (Prosperity Tieh Enterprise Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. #16-00138).
The Commerce Department must "find a practical solution" to verify information from countervailing duty respondents' U.S. customers that shows that they did not use China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade said in an opinion released May 20. Adding to a long line of CIT opinions striking down Commerce's use of adverse facts available over the EBCP, Judge Richard Eaton said that the agency can either find a solution to verify the non-use of the program on the record or recalculate the CVD rates for the two mandatory respondents, Dalian Meisen and Ancientree, without using the subsidy rate for the EBCP.
The Court of International Trade in a May 23 opinion sent back CBP's decision finding that MSeafood Corp. did not evade antidumping duties by transshipping Indian frozen warmwater shrimp through Vietnam. Judge Claire Kelly said that CBP only reviewed part of the record in making the decision and failed to adequately follow its own regulations requiring public summaries of confidential information.
The Court of International Trade in a May 20 order denied plaintiff Koehler Paper's stay motion in antidumping case. The U.S. opposed the stay motion which requested that the case be halted until the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sorted out what to do about the use of the Cohen's d test when detecting masked dumping on the grounds that the impact of a Federal Circuit decision is "speculative at best" (see 2204220041). The U.S. pointed out that resolution of the Federal Circuit case Stupp Corp. v. United States may only affect two legal issues in the case leaving six issues unaffected (Matra Americas LLC v. United States, CIT Consol. #21-00632).
The Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations will not be allowed to intervene in GreenFirst Forest Products' case at the Court of International Trade contesting the Commerce Department's decision not to start a changed circumstances review. Per a May 20 opinion at CIT, Judge Claire Kelly said the coalition failed to show that it has a "direct, immediate, or legally protectable interest in this case" or that the U.S. will not adequately represent its interests.
The Commerce Department fully addressed the Court of International Trade's questions about why the agency needs certain information from the Chinese government in order to verify that certain exporters' U.S. customers did not use the Export Buyer's Credit Program, a countervailing duty petitioner argued in May 19 comments supporting Commerce's remand. The petitioner, United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers Union, AFL-CIO, said that the "only reasonable way" for Commerce to pursue verification of non-use of the EBCP is through this requested information, so the Chinese government not providing it stands as reasonable grounds for the use of adverse facts available (Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co. v. United States, CIT #20-00113).
The Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security continued to deny 15 Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests from NLMK Pennsylvania in remand results at the Court of International Trade on May 18. BIS said that the U.S. industry has sufficient capacity to make the products that NLMK requested the exclusions for at a "satisfactory quality" (NLMK Pennsylvania v. United States, CIT #21-00507).
The Court of International Trade in a May 19 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty case, finding that exporter Pirelli Tyre wasn't controlled by the Chinese state for the first 10 months of the AD review. Ten months into the review, Chinese company Chem China bought Pirelli, but Commerce originally held that Pirelli was owned by the Chinese government for the entire review. On remand, the agency said Chem China didn't own Pirelli for the first 10 months, giving the exporter a 1.45% dumping rate for this period.
The Commerce Department sufficiently backed its position that electricity subsidies in China were regionally specific, the Court of International Trade said in a May 19 opinion in a countervailing duty review challenge. Addressing the four other previously remanded elements of the review, Judge Jane Restani ultimately upheld Commerce's remand.
The Federal Trade Commission said that apparel company Lions Not Sheep Products and Sean Whalen, its owner, falsely label their products as Made in USA, filing a complaint against the company and its owner. In the filing, FTC said that Lions Not Sheep and Whalen actually imported their clothing and accessories from China and other countries. The commission would have the company stop making the false claims, label the proper country of origin of the products and pay a $211,335 penalty to the commission.