Jacob Kopnick

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).

The Court of International Trade found again that President Donald Trump violated procedural time limits when expanding Section 232 tariffs to steel and aluminum “derivatives,” in a June 10 decision. Citing CIT's prior case on the topic, PrimeSource Building Products Inc. v. United States (see 2104050049), Judges Jennifer Choe-Groves and Timothy Stanceu awarded refunds for tariffs paid to steel fastener importers Oman Fasteners, Huttig Building Products and Huttig Inc. In Oman Fasteners, LLC. et al. v. United States, the court ruled that the president illegally announced the tariff expansion after the 105-day deadline laid out by Section 232, but denied the plaintiff's other two claims, without prejudice, on the procedural violations of the tariff expansion. The panel's third member, Judge Miller Baker, concurred in part and dissented in part.

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

The Court of International Trade should stay liquidation of PrimeSource Building Products' imports of steel "derivatives" and reinstate the requirement of PrimeSource to monitor future derivative imports and maintain a sufficient continuous bond, pending an appeal of the steel derivative decision, the Department of Justice said in a June 9 filing.

The Commerce Department can apply total adverse facts available for a mandatory respondent's failure to provide its factors of production (FPO) data on a control number (CONNUM)-specific basis in an antidumping case, the Court of International Trade ruled in a June 9 opinion. Judge Leo Gordon, in a consolidated action challenging an antidumping administrative review on certain steel nails from China, said that Commerce had the right to switch to a CONNUM-specific reporting requirement and that the mandatory respondent should have known about this switch. Gordon also found that Commerce was justified in using a total AFA rate for two mandatory respondents to calculate the non-individually reviewed respondent rate.

JSW Steel (USA) is accusing three U.S. steelmakers of a conspiracy and group "boycott" to hinder JSW's ability to make and sell competing steel products, according to a June 8 complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Following the imposition of Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum in 2018, JSW claims U.S. Steel, Nucor and AK Steel owner Cleveland-Cliffs, which control 80% of domestic steel capacity, colluded to refuse to sell raw material to JSW.

Steel rebar importer Power Steel Co. paid Section 232 duties on its imports, and those payments were eligible to be deducted from its U.S. price in an antidumping case, the Department of Justice argued in a June 9 brief in the Court of International Trade (Power Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-03771).

The Commerce Department "finally" came to a conclusion in an antidumping administrative review on large power transformers from South Korea that is in line with "record facts, the law and basic standards of investigative fairness," mandatory respondent Hyosung Heavy Industries Corporation said in June 7 comments on remand results. Joined by the other mandatory respondent Hyundai Heavy Industries and the Department of Justice, Hyosung voiced its approval of the remand results in the Court of International Trade, which scrapped the application of total adverse facts available after DOJ requested a voluntary remand to "reconsider" the original determinations (Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #18-00066).

The "U.S. shipping point" must be a location from which tomatoes ship from inside the U.S., and any expenses between the U.S. border and that point should be included in reference prices under the 2019 antidumping duty suspension agreement on Mexican tomatoes, Mexican exporters said in a June 3 memo. The memo responds to allegations of non-compliance during an administrative review of the agreement from the Florida Tomato Exchange, which says imports should be judged based on the price immediately after crossing the border. The FTE's interpretation cuts directly against the plain language of the agreement and uses an interpretation of the term "free on board (FOB) U.S. shipping point" that would lead to "absurd results" in how the agreement is applied, the Mexican growers said.

The Commerce Department's decision on remand to reverse its affirmative determination that certain hardwood plywood products from China circumvented antidumping and countervailing duties "defies a wealth of evidence about what actually occurred in the hardwood plywood market," petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood said in June 7 comments on Commerce's remand results. Commerce ignored multiple pieces of contradictory evidence in making its determination following a Court of International Trade opinion remanding the case and made a determination that undermines its own conclusion that certain hardwood plywood was not "later-developed" after the AD/CVD orders, the coalition said (Shelter Forest International Acquisition, Inc. et al v. United States, CIT #19-00212).