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 U.S. declined to prosecute a criminal trade fraud case against global plastic resin distributor MGI International and its subsidiaries Global Plastics and Marco Polo International, DOJ announced on Dec. 18. The agency agreed to credit a $6.8 million payment made by MGI to settle a civil case against the company for knowingly failing to pay customs duties on plastic resin entries from China in its decision not to proceed with a criminal investigation for the same conduct.
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
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 following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
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 following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The U.S. agreed to liquidate hoverboards imported by 3BTech under duty-free Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8711.60.000 and exclude the goods from Section 301 China tariffs under secondary subheading 9903.88.17. 3BTech and the U.S. filed a stipulated judgment in the importer's test case on the issue, which resolves the spat in favor of 3BTech (3BTech v. United States, CIT # 21-00026).
In oral argument before Court of International Trade Judge Mark Barnett, parties grappled with how much the Commerce Department was required to consider the original record of its review of the countervailing duty order on Canadian softwood lumber -- which has been subject to litigation since its results were published in 2019 (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 19-00122).
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).