The Commerce Department's calculation of the separate rate in an antidumping duty review by averaging the separate rates from the previous four administrative reviews was backed by substantial evidence, the Court of International Trade said in a Sept. 27 order. After previously finding that Commerce's extension of the adverse facts available rate to the non-individually examined respondents was unlawful, the court then upheld the agency's new separate rate calculation methodology.

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

The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's final results in an investigation into circumvention of the antidumping and countervailing duties on corrosion-resistant steel products from the China, in a Sept. 24 confidential order. The case was brought by Al Ghurair Iron & Steel, which was found to be circumventing the AD/CVD orders via the United Arab Emirates. In a letter to the litigants, Judge Timothy Reif requested that the parties review the opinion by Oct. 1 for any confidential information to be redacted (Al Ghurair Iron & Steel LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00142).

The Commerce Department's denial of separate rate status to Pirelli Tyre Co. during the first 10 months of the review period in an antidumping duty administrative review was improper because the importer was not yet owned by a Chinese government-associated entity during that time frame, the Court of International Trade said in a Sept. 24 order. Remanding in part and sustaining in part Commerce's second remand results in the AD duty review of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves also sustained Commerce's decision, under protest, to drop the downward adjustment for irrecoverable value-added tax to mandatory respondent Qingdao Sentury Tire Co.'s export price.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 24 order remanded for the fourth time the Commerce Department's attempt to set the all-others rate in an antidumping duty investigation by averaging a zero percent and an adverse facts available rate given to the two mandatory respondents. The court said Commerce has an obligation to assign dumping margins as accurately as possible, which it said the agency was not doing when it came up with the all-others rate without using any company's actual data.

The Labor Department's decision to continue to find that a unionized group of former AT&T call center employees are not entitled to trade adjustment assistance for outsourced jobs gives a "half-baked analysis" of the situation, the workers said in a Sept. 20 filing at the Court of International Trade. The plaintiffs accused the agency of failing to ever fully grapple with contradicting evidence on the record in its remand results (Communications Workers of America Local 4123, on behalf of Former Employees of AT&T Services, Inc. v. United States Secretary of Labor, CIT #20-00075).

The Commerce Department cannot make a particular market situation adjustment in the sales-below-cost test when calculating normal value, the Court of International Trade again ruled in a Sept. 23 opinion. Pointing to multiple CIT rulings reaching the same conclusion (see 2107210065), Judge Gary Katzmann said that since the statute in one section has language permitting a PMS adjustment but excludes it in the section on normal value adjustments, Commerce could not make the PMS adjustment. Katzmann also said that even if such an adjustment were allowed, Commerce did not provide enough evidence that a PMS existed.

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

Solar panel exporter MS Solar Investments is seeking targeted discovery of documents relating to the liquidation of its solar panel exports to determine if decisions made by CBP and the Commerce Department were erroneous, MS Solar said in a Sept. 22 letter to the Court of International Trade (MS Solar Investments, LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00303).

The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Commission's final negative injury determination in its antidumping and countervailing duty investigation of fabricated structural steel from Canada, China and Mexico, in a Sept. 22 confidential opinion. Judge Claire Kelly handed down the result, and plans to publish the public opinion on Sept. 30, she said in a letter to the litigants. The parties have until Sept. 29 to review information that's not already bracketed that should be bracketed and the already-bracketed information to make sure no confidential information is released to the public (Full Member Subgroup of the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC v. United States, CIT #20-00090).