Jacob Kopnick

A Court of International Trade decision eliminating the extension of Section 232 duties to steel and aluminum "derivatives" has formally been appealed by the U.S. to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, according to a June 17 docketing notice. The CIT ruling, decided by a three-judge panel at the trade court, found that President Donald Trump violated statutory time limits when expanding the tariffs to the derivative products. Importer PrimeSource Building Products successfully argued that the tariff expansion was announced well after the 105-day deadline for tariff action following the initial Commerce Department report that led to the initial imposition of the Section 232 duties in 2018 (see 2104050049) (PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, Federal Circuit, #21-2066).

No serious gaps in the record exist proving that plywood producer Shelter Forest did not develop its plywood after the Commerce Department issued antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China, the Department of Justice said in a brief June 16. Contradicting comments on Commerce's remand results from petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood, DOJ backed Commerce's remand decision to reverse its affirmative determination that Shelter Forest's plywood circumvented the AD/CV duties.

Dominican aluminum extrusion manufacturer Kingtom Aluminio SRL should not be allowed to intervene in a Court of International Trade case in which it is alleged to be involved in a transshipment scheme to avoid antidumping duties, the Enforce and Protect Act case alleger Ta Chen International said in a June 16 brief. Although it made the covered merchandise, Kingtom did not import it through evasion, Ta Chen said.

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

A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision finding that antidumping duty countrywide rates in non-market economies can still be based on adverse facts available even if no respondents were uncooperative in an administrative review (see 2106100044) will be considered in a Court of International Trade case on the Commerce Department's AFA policy, according to a June 14 notice of supplemental authority from the Department of Justice. The Federal Circuit decision in China Manufacturers Alliance, LLC v. United States "substantially overlaps" with a CIT case over Commerce's NME policy brought by Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co., DOJ said (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co., Ltd., v. United States, CIT #18-00191).

A Commerce Department determination to apply adverse facts available to Thai pipe exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company in an antidumping administrative review and spurn the company's sales and cost databases based on a notice of investigation in an evasion case is "egregious," Saha Thai said in a June 15 motion for judgment in the Court of International Trade. Saha Thai expressed particular concern over Commerce's decision to include the company's U.S. sales of dual-certified pipe in its calculation of the antidumping duty margin since it had already been determined that a scope ruling on dual-certified pipe did not apply to entries covered by the 2018-19 administrative review (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Limited v. U.S., CIT #21-00049).

The Commerce Department will reconsider its decision to reallocate the cost of production for antidumping administrative review respondent Nexteel Co.'s non-prime products to account for their losses when calculating constructed value, the Court of International Trade said in a June 7 ruling made public on June 15. Issuing her second remand in the case brought from steel producers Husteel Co. and Nexteel over the 2016-17 AD administrative review of welded line pipe from Korea, Judge Claire Kelly sustained all other determinations made by Commerce.

The Court of International Trade sustained the final results of the second administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from Oman, in a June 14 decision. Judge Richard Eaton held that there was substantial evidence to back the Commerce Department's decision to use a Japanese company's financial statement to determine constructed value profit and indirect selling expenses for mandatory respondent Oman Fasteners, as opposed to an Indian company's financial statement as favored by petitioner and plaintiff in the case, Mid Continent Steel & Wire.

President Donald Trump properly eliminated a tariff exemption for bifacial solar panels since a majority of the representatives of the domestic industry, by volume, filed a petition to remove the exemption, the Department of Justice said in a June 11 brief in the Court of International Trade. Responding to arguments from the Solar Energy Industries Association, the Justice Department contested the trade group's assertion that the withdrawal of the exemption was merely based on a "head count" (Solar Energy Industries Association et al. v. United States, CIT #20-03941).

CBP was wrong to exclude certain motor frame assemblies from entry to the U.S. as "drug paraphernalia" since the goods, which will be used to make a marijuana processing machine, are legal in the states of Washington and Nevada, importer Eteros Technologies USA said in a June 11 complaint in the Court of International Trade. Eteros claims that there is an exemption to the law that bans the import of drug paraphernalia when a person who is allowed by local, state or federal law to "manufacture, possess or distribute 'drug paraphernalia.'" CBP has consistently failed to recognize this exemption, Eteros said (Eteros Technologies USA, Inc. v. United States, CIT #21-00287).