The Commerce Department lawfully selected surrogate values, calculated rates, applied adverse facts, and correctly decided to deny a separate rate to Trina during its eighth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells from China, DOJ told the Court of International Trade in a Sept. 18 reply (Jinko Solar Import and Export Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00219).
Ben Perkins
Ben Perkins, Assistant Editor, is a reporter with International Trade Today and its sister publications, Trade Law Daily and Export Compliance Daily, where he covers sanctions, court rulings, and other international trade issues. He previously worked as a trade analyst for a Washington D.C. advisory firm. Ben holds a B.A. in English from the University of New Hampshire and an M.A. in International Relations from American University. Ben joined the staff of Warren Communications News in 2022.
In the Sept. 13 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 33), CBP published a proposal to revoke a ruling letter concerning a plastic playmat and to modify another on steel wire cartridges.
The Commerce Department erred when it found that canvas banner matisse imported by Berger Textiles was subject to the antidumping duty order on certain artists' canvas from China was in error, said Berger in a Sept. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Berger asked the court to find that the matisse is expressly outside the scope of the orders and to remand the issue back to Commerce (Berger Textiles v. U.S., CIT # 23-00192).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department made multiple errors, including miscalculating benchmark data and the use of adverse inferences, in a countervailing duty review on multilayered wood flooring from China, Baroque Timber Industries said in its Sept. 15 reply at the Court of International Trade. Those alleged errors resulted in inaccurate CVD rates for Fine Furniture and other Chinese wood flooring exporters, Baroque said in a motion for judgment in March (see 2303100041) (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00210).
Sept. 13 CBP Bulletin Proposes to Revoke Ruling on Car Cleaner and Modify Ruling on Energy Absorbers
In the Sept. 13 Customs Bulletin (Vol. 57, No. 33), CBP published a proposal to revoke a ruling letter concerning a car cleaner and modify another concerning bumper energy absorbers.
The Commerce Department made several errors in its handling of the resumption of an antidumping duty investigation on tomatoes from Mexico after the termination of a suspension agreement, Mexican tomato exporter Bioparques de Occidente said in a Sept. 13 reply brief at the Court of International Trade (Bioparques de Occidente v. U.S., CIT # 19-00204).
CBP commenced a formal Enforce and Protect Act investigation on whether Midwest Livestock Systems evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders by entering Chinese-origin steel grating (A-570-947/C-570-948) in the form of “tri-bar flooring” that was not declared as covered merchandise into the U.S. Based on available information, CBP determined that there was reasonable suspicion of evasion by Midwest and imposed interim measures.
A direct forming hollow section line or “tube mill" is correctly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. heading 8462 as a machine tool rather than under heading 8455 as a metal-rolling mill, according to a recently released CBP ruling. The ruling came in response to an application for further review of a denied protest filed by Dundee Products.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated Sept. 14 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):