The Commerce Department did not improperly "relitigate" a previous negative injury finding on freight rail couplers from China when it conducted its antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into the same products less than two years after negative injury determination, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 23. Judge Gary Katzmann said the scope of the previous and present AD/CVD proceedings are different in three key ways: they cover different physical merchandise, concern different countries of origin and cover different periods of review, sufficiently distinguishing the proceedings. However, Katzmann remanded the AD/CVD investigations on the basis that Commerce improperly disclaimed the authority to modify the orders' scope language based on an argument from importer Wabtec that the petitioner's theory of injury isn't cognizable regarding freight rail couplers that are imported attached to new rail cars.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 denied exporter Fuzhou Hengli Paper's motion to supplement the record to add an Excel data file in a case on the antidumping duty investigation on paper plates from China. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that the exporter didn't properly file its exhibit in line with Commerce's procedures for filing documents on the agency's ACCESS system, since Fuzhou Hengli 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." The exporter never re-filed the submission "after one business day with the final rebuttal brief," the judge noted. By failing to re-file the next day, the respondent filed its final rebuttal brief without an attached exhibit, meaning the file at issue was never "formally placed on the administrative record," the court said.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 18 again remanded the Commerce Department's countervailing duty expedited review of softwood lumber products from Canada. After multiple remands, the sole remaining issue concerns the calculation of the CVD rate for respondent Les Produits Forestiers D&G and its cross-owned affiliates, including Les Produits Forestiers Portbec. Specifically, the issue is the method of calculation used to adjust for the amount of lumber D&G and Portbec bought from unaffiliated suppliers when determining how much of the suppliers' subsidies were attributable to D&G. Barnett held that Commerce abused its discretion in the most recent remand by declining D&G's request to reopen the record to provide additional information to help distinguish sales affected by the subsidies. The judge said finality concerns don't overcome this failure.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 remanded the Commerce Department's finding that circular welded steel pipe completed in Vietnam with hot-rolled steel from South Korea, India and China circumvented the antidumping and countervailing duty orders from these three countries. Despite siding with the U.S. regarding all of the legal challenges made to the circumvention determination by exporter SeAH Steel Vina, Judge Mark Barnett said Commerce failed to support its conclusion with substantial evidence. Barnett said the agency only based its conclusion on the circumvention statute's "mandatory" factors, adding that the statute requires Commerce to offer something additional to support a circumvention determination, which the agency failed to do here.

The Commerce Department properly found on remand that certain reductions in tax fines and penalties received by countervailing duty respondent OCP weren't de facto specific, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 16. Sustaining the 2020-21 CVD review of Moroccan phosphate fertilizers, Judge Timothy Stanceu said applying de facto specificity to the program at issue would cut against the Statement of Administrative Action accompanying the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, since it's widely available in the Moroccan economy.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 16 for a second time remanded the Commerce Department's scope ruling excluding 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. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said two of the (k)(1) sources used by Commerce, the International Trade Commission report and AD petition, don't support the agency's conclusion. The judge instructed Commerce to review the (k)(2) sources, including the "applicable industry standards" and "declarations from domestic industry executives." Choe-Groves also remanded the agency's substantial transformation analysis to determine the goods at issue's country of origin.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 15 denied a motion for an injunction stopping liquidation of entries from a group of importers that filed challenges to International Emergency Economic Powers Act tariffs. Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif and Jane Restani held that an injunction is unnecessary because the trade court has the authority to reliquidate finally liquidated entries from the importers that filed suit under the court's 28 U.S.C. 1581(i) jurisdiction if the Supreme Court invalidates the tariffs. The judges also noted the government's commitment that it won't fight against CIT's ability to order refunds, finding the U.S. is barred from changing its position in the future.

The Commerce Department interpreted and applied its regulations contrary to Section 751(h) of the Tariff Act of 1930 when it rejected petitioner Catfish Farmers of America's ministerial error allegation in an antidumping review, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 15. Judge Timothy Stanceu said Commerce erred in only allowing the petitioner to raise ministerial error allegations regarding the final determination that couldn't have been raised in the petitioner's case brief, finding that this cut against the "express requirement of Section 751(h)." However, the judge did uphold the agency's decision not to use facts otherwise available against respondent CASEAMEX related to its reporting of its packing costs.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 12 denied the government's motion for reconsideration of the court's decision to vacate CBP's finding that Dominican exporter Kingtom Aluminio made its aluminum extrusions with forced labor. Judge Timothy Reif said that while he did mistakenly say that the "allegation assessment" was insufficient to support the forced labor finding, the mistake was a "harmless error," since it's clear from context that the court was actually referring to CBP's on-site verification report. Reif added that no mistake of law was made regarding his decision to vacate the finding, rather than remanding without vacatur, since the U.S. didn't respond to Kingtom's request for vacatur.

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 11 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in the antidumping duty investigation on mobile access equipment from China. Judge M. Miller Baker upheld Commerce's decisions to use Maersk price quotes to value ocean freight and value minor fabricated components using Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8431.20.90 data.