Ceratizit USA, a North Carolina-based tungsten carbide distributor, agreed to pay $54.4 million to settle allegations it violated the False Claims Act by "knowingly and improperly failing to pay duties owed on tungsten carbide products" from China, DOJ announced.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 denied exporter Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co.'s bid to add an Excel data file to the record in the company's case against the antidumping duty investigation on Chinese paper plates. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that Fuzhou Hengli failed to adhere to the Commerce Department's procedures, since the company only filed its submission "on the one-day lag system on a temporary basis in connection with the barcode of the non-final rebuttal brief" and never re-filed the submission "after one business day with the final rebuttal brief."

As importers everywhere await the Supreme Court's final decision on the fate of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, more and more attorneys are counseling their clients to file preemptive lawsuits at the Court of International Trade to guarantee their right to a refund of the IEEPA tariffs.

The Commerce Department reasonably found that wheels made in a third country with a mix of Chinese and third-country parts are covered by the scope of the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on steel trailer wheels from China, the U.S. told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 15 (Asia Wheel Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #s 25-1689, 25-1694).

The United States-Bahrain Free Trade Agreement established a "double substantial transformation" test to qualify for preferential tr eatment under the FTA, the U.S. argued in a cross-motion for partial summary judgment at the Court of International Trade. The controlling authority regarding the test is General Note 30 to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule and not, as importer JBF Bahrain has argued, the executive agreement between the two countries or a side letter on tariff classification, the U.S. said (JBF Bahrain v. United States, CIT # 23-00067).

In remand results published Dec. 15, the Commerce Department maintained its refusal to grant exporter Dingsheng Aluminum Industries Group a double remedies adjustment in its countervailing duty administrative review on aluminum foil from China (Jiangsu Dingsheng New Materials Joint-Stock Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00264).

The Commerce Department failed to adequately support its finding that circular welded steel pipe from Vietnam made with hot-rolled steel from South Korea, India or China circumvented the antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on steel pipe from the three countries, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 16.

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The Commerce Department failed to adequately support its decision in a scope referral to exclude certain carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings made from Chinese fittings that underwent production in Vietnam from the scope of the antidumping duty order on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 16.

The Commerce Department reasonably found that a certain Moroccan tax subsidy isn't de facto specific, since it's widely available throughout the economy, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 16. Judge Timothy Stanceu sustained Commerce's reversal of its specificity determination made on remand in a case on the 2020-21 review of the countervailing duty order on Moroccan phosphate fertilizer.