The Court of International Trade remanded the Commerce Department's determination that U.S. seafood seller Luscious Seafood is not a bona fide wholesaler of the domestic like product in a confidential decision issued on Dec. 15. Judge Timothy Stanceu said Commerce shall issue a new decision "in which it decides whether Luscious Seafood had standing to request an administrative review of certain Vietnamese exporters and producers" (Luscious Seafood v. United States, CIT # 24-00069).
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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.
The Commerce Department misapplied its regulations regarding the filing of ministerial error allegations during an antidumping duty administrative review, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 15. Judge Timothy Stanceu said Commerce erred in only allowing the petitioner in an AD review to raise ministerial error allegations regarding the final results that couldn't have been raised in the petitioner's case brief, finding that this cut against the "express requirement of Section 751(h)."
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Dec. 16 on AD/CVD proceedings:
Flexographic photopolymer printing plates imported by Miraclon Corporation aren't covered by an antidumping duty order on aluminum lithographic printing plates from Japan, the Commerce Department ruled Nov. 24.
Petitioners for the countervailing duty review of Thai shrimp jointly asked the Court of International Trade on Dec. 15 to strike an exporter’s reply brief, saying the brief relied on non-record factual information (Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00030).
Responding to a plywood importer’s motion for rehearing, the U.S. Dec. 12 denied that it had suppressed evidence in “flagrant violation” of a remand order, saying the importer, InterGlobal Forest, had no basis for seeking a rehearing of its case (American Pacific Plywood v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-03914).
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.