The Department of Justice urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to uphold a lower court ruling denying a group of domestic steel manufacturers the right to intervene in Section 232 exclusion denial cases, in a Nov. 17 brief, arguing that none of the producers has a legally protectable interest in the proceedings. DOJ said that the steel makers' economic interests are insufficient to warrant intervention in the cases since they are "indirect and contingent," seeing as the companies argue that their interest in the exclusions derives from "sales opportunities."

The Full Member Subgroup of the American Institute of Steel Construction will appeal a September Court of International Trade decision that sustained the International Trade Commission's finding that imports of fabricated structural steel from Canada, Chile and Mexico didn't harm the domestic industry. In a Nov. 19 notice of appeal, the subgroup said that it will appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The decision concerned the selection of data and the ITC's methodological choices for selecting pricing product data or bid data (see 2110050071) (Full Member Subgroup of the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC v. United States, CIT #20-00090).

U.S. Steel Corporation should not be allowed to intervene in a Section 232 exclusion denial case because it has already been denied this right three other times and has no interest that can support intervention, Russian steelmaker NLMK argued in a Nov. 17 brief to the Court of International Trade. The critical flaw in U.S. Steel's intervention bid is that case is about the Commerce Department's action and not about U.S. Steel, NMLK said (NLMK Pennsylvania, LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00507).

The Court of International Trade sustained Nov. 18 the Commerce Department's remand results in a case involving a scope revision in an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation on steel trailer wheels from China. After previously sustaining the scope revision itself but remanding the retroactive imposition of the duties on subject merchandise, Judge Gary Katzmann then sustained Commerce's redetermination after it dropped the retroactive duties.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The Commerce Department's surrogate financial ratio calculation in an antidumping duty case, while better explained, is not the most accurate calculation and thus does not comply with the law or the Court of International Trade's order, plaintiff Ancientree Cabinet Co. argued in a Nov. 12 brief at CIT. Further, the particular methodology Commerce used also doesn't jibe with the agency's past methodology and reasoning in other AD reviews, the brief said (The Ancientree Cabinet Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT # 20-00114).

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The Commerce Department has the authority to modify the scope of an antidumping duty investigation in response to evidence of evasion to ensure that the ultimate order "provides an effective remedy," the Department of Justice argued in a Nov. 12 brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. DOJ also backed the actual scope decision at issue in the case itself, asserting it was based on substantial evidence that showed Chinese companies were planning to use the original crushed glass exclusion to evade Commerce's AD/CVD orders on quartz-glass product (M S International, Inc., et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #21-1679).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a notice of noncompliance Nov. 15 to counsel for the U.S. government in a case involving Section 232 duties. The notice said only one attorney may serve as principal counsel for each party. Two Department of Justice attorneys, Stephen Tosini and Kyle Beckrich, currently are listed in the docket as counsel for the U.S., with both marked to receive notice. Tosini is listed as the lead counsel and Beckrich as the counsel of record. The Federal Circuit said that "a party's failure to timely file a corrected document curing all defects identified on this notice may result in this document being stricken (PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. , #21-2066).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed on Nov. 16 a case challenging a 2020 amendment to an antidumping suspension agreement on sugar from Mexico following a voluntary dismissal motion from the Department of Justice. The appellate court previously upheld the Court of International Trade's denials of two related cases (see 2107190038). Earlier this month, both DOJ and the plaintiff-appellee CSC Sugar said they believe it would be appropriate for the court to dismiss the consolidated appeal (see 2111020069) (CSC Sugar LLC v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #20-1275).