The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 13 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's finding that exporter Cheng Shin Rubber Industry's tires do not qualify for an exclusion to the antidumping duty order on light truck spare tires, despite the petitioner originally agreeing to include specific exclusion language for Cheng Shin's tires. Judge Stephen Vaden said it is not his job "to save Cheng Shin from itself," given the negotiated exclusion required the tires must be "designed and marketed exclusively" as temporary-use light truck tires, and Cheng Shin submitted evidence showing its tires were not exclusively designed and marketed as such.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 10 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's final results in the 2018 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves remanded the case for Commerce to consider information relating to the prevailing market conditions, such as price, quality and other conditions of purchase or sale, when determining whether a benefit was conferred to respondent Hyundai Steel from the South Korea's government provision of port usage rights. Choe-Groves also granted Commerce's voluntary remand request over sewerage usage fees after it said it learned more about the program.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 9 opinion again called the Commerce Department's non-market economy policies into question, sending back the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the fifth administrative review of multilayered wood flooring from China. On remand, Commerce continued to find that AD respondent Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. failed to show that it was not controlled by the Chinese state. Judge Richard Eaton said that since Commerce has not shown its policy of assigning mandatory respondents the one non-market economy rate to have either statutory or regulatory backing, the agency must reconsider how it legally hit Jilin with the China-wide rate.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 9 opinion rejected Meyer Corp.'s bid for first sale treatment of its cookware imports, with Judge Thomas Aquilino denying the importer's request for a retrial. The judge held firm on a prior judgment in the case -- before it was appealed to the Federal Circuit -- which held that, because the court doesn't know the extent to which parent company Meyer Holdings had the ability to influence the price paid for the goods sold between affiliates, the use of first sale was not supported.
Then-President Donald Trump legally expanded the Section 232 national security tariffs onto steel and aluminum "derivative" products, despite implementing the expansion beyond certain procedural deadlines laid out in the statute, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a Feb. 7 opinion. Relying on its 2021 opinion in Transpacific Steel v. U.S., in which the court said the president can adjust the tariffs beyond the time limits if it relates to the original plan of action laid out by the initial Section 232 tariff action, the Federal Circuit said the president can take action against derivatives despite the Commerce Department secretary not having individually investigated these articles. Judges Richard Taranto, Raymond Chen and Kara Stoll said the expansion to steel derivatives was within Section 232's authorization of presidential action.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 6 order denied defendant-intervenor Endura Products' motion for a stay of proceedings in an Enforce and Protect Act case brought by Columbia Aluminum pending Endura's impending appeal of a separate CIT decision over a scope ruling involving Columbia's imports. In that decision, the court upheld the exclusion of the plaintiff's door thresholds from the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu said the stay motion failed to show it would serve the twin objectives of "fairness to the litigants and judicial economy."
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 6 dismissed importer Acquisition 362's challenge of CBP's countervailing duty assessments, ruling it did not have jurisdiction because the importer failed to file a protest. Acquisition 362, which does business as Strategic Import Supply, had argued it didn't need to file the protest because there was nothing to protest within 180 days of the tire imports at issue being liquidated. Judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Taranto and Todd Hughes ruled a protest was needed nonetheless, holding the 180-day deadline to file a protest challenging a CBP decision runs from the date of liquidation and not from the date of Commerce's antidumping and countervailing duty instructions.
The Court of International Trade in a confidential Jan. 24 opinion made public Feb. 1 upheld CBP's decision to find that importer Leco Supply evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on wire hangers from Vietnam. Leco argued that CBP illegally started the investigation; CBP's decision was not backed by substantial evidence; CBP denied Leco procedural due process; and CBP abused its discretion by refusing to accept Leco's written arguments during the remand proceeding. Judge Mark Barnett sided with the government on all four points.
The Court of International Trade in a Jan. 27 order granted a U.S. motion to add a questionnaire deficiencies analysis for antidumping respondent Grupo Simec to the record in a case on an AD review of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Mexico. Judge Stephen Vaden said the analysis is "properly part of the record" because the Commerce Department considered it in making the review's final decision, and "Commerce's decision cannot properly be reviewed without its inclusion." The judge added there is no "compelling evidence Commerce acted in bad faith," despite Grupo Simec's claim the agency did just that when it only sought to add the document to the record four months after the final results.
The Court of International Trade in a Jan. 24 order sent back the Commerce Department's final determination in the countervailing duty investigation on granular polytetrafluoroethylene from India. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that, on remand, Commerce must drop the 26.5% estimated subsidy rate for the provision of land by the State Industrial Development Corp. and reconsider the estimated subsidy rate for the provision of land from the Gujarat Industrial Development Corp.