The Court of International Trade in a July 7 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on corrosion-resistant steel goods from South Korea. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said Commerce failed to adequately explain why it deviated from its past finding that exporter KG Dongbu Steel's first through third debt-to-equity restructurings were not countervailable. The evidence cited by the agency in justifying deviating from this practice did not directly deal with these three restructurings and is thus "not a sufficient explanation to justify departing from its standard practice," the judge said. Choe-Groves also sent back Commerce's uncreditworthy benchmark rate since Commerce failed to address potentially contradictory evidence.
The Court of International Trade on July 7 remanded a case contesting an antidumping duty administrative review on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. The still-confidential order from Judge M. Miller Baker directs Commerce to reconsider its surrogate country selection process and to consider countries at a “comparable level of economic development” as potential surrogates on an equal basis with countries Commerce deems to be at “the same level of economic development” (Catfish Farmers of America v. U.S., CIT # 21-00380).
The Court of International Trade in a July 6 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's denial of exporter GreenFirst Forest Products' request for a successor-in-interest changed circumstances review for the purposes of countervailing duties on softwood lumber products from Canada. GreenFirst sought the review after it acquired Rayonier A.M. Canada's lumber mills, arguing it is entitled to RYAM's "non-selected" CVD rate rather than the 14.19% all-others rate. Judge Claire Kelly remanded Commerce's decision not to start the review for the second time, finding the agency did not address her question of why Commerce's successor-in-interest practice is reasonable for non-individually examined companies.
The Court of International Trade in a June 22 opinion made public June 30 upheld CBP's affirmative evasion finding related to imports of hardwood plywood from American Pacific Plywood, Global Forest and InterGlobal Forest. CBP said the companies skirted antidumping and countervailing duties on the plywood from China by transshipping their imports through Cambodia. Judge M. Miller Baker ruled that the importers' due process claims relating to their lack of access to confidential information fell flat since they failed to claim that the public summaries of the information were insufficient. The judge added that CBP didn't misapply the substantial evidence standard in the investigation, contrary to the importers' claims. Baker said the companies conflated "evidence" with "concrete proof."
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's decision not to collapse exporter Prosperity Tieh Enterprise Co. with the already-collapsed entity of Yieh Phui Enterprise Co. and Synn Industrial Co. as part of the antidumping duty investigation into corrosion resistant steel (CORE) products from Taiwan. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the trade court's opinion upholding the collapsing decision, Judge Timothy Stanceu said Commerce properly weighed the evidence to find the evidence was insufficient to show a significant potential for manipulation between Prosperity and Yieh Phui. The decision was made despite members of the same family owning both companies. The result was a 11.04% margin for Prosperity and a de minimis 1.20% margin for the Yieh Phui/Synn entity.
The Court of International Trade on June 23 upheld Commerce's use of likely selling price instead of actual costs of production to calculate the cost of production of non-prime merchandise, after German exporter Dillinger failed to populate the record with actual COP data for the non-prime goods in an antidumping duty investigation on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from Germany. Judge Leo Gordon also sustained the use of partial adverse facts available on exporter Salzgitter due to its failure to report around 28,000 downstream sales. But the judge remanded the agency's rejection of Dillinger's proposed quality code for sour transport plate as part of the agency's model-match methodology because a previous court opinion rejected that methodology.
The Court of International Trade in a June 21 opinion rejected the U.S. motion to dismiss one count of a suit brought by Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The plaintiffs challenged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2020 findings that New Zealand's standards for its West Coast North Island inshore trawl and set net fisheries were comparable with U.S. regulations. The U.S. said that because the comparability findings expired, the claims were moot. Judge Gary Katzmann ruled that while injunctive relief against the findings were moot, one element of Sea Shepherd's argument was live because it's capable of repetition and evading review.
The Court of International Trade in a June 20 opinion upheld CBP's finding that importer Skyview Cabinet evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China. Judge Stephen Vaden ruled that, contrary to Skyview's claims, CBP supported its conclusion with substantial evidence and that Skyview failed to show its goods were made in Malaysia. Vaden added that CBP properly used adverse facts available given foreign manufacturer Rowenda Kitchen's refusal to provide any requested information and that the agency did not violate the company's due process rights.
The Court of International Trade granted three conservation groups' bid to dismiss a suit seeking to compel the Interior Department to respond to a request to certify Mexico had not done enough to curb illegal fishing and trade of the totoaba fish, further threatening the endangered vaquita porpoise. The conservation groups and Interior reached a settlement in April, under which the agency made the certification, which allows the president to impose restrictions on trade with Mexico.
The Court of International Trade, in a pair of opinions authored by Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves, upheld parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's countervailing duty review on oil country tubular goods from South Korea, and sustained Commerce's remand results in a suit on the antidumping duty review of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China.