The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied importer Smith-Cooper International's bid for 3,000 additional words in its reply brief as part of a suit on a scope case concerning Vandewater International's steel branch outlets. SCI filed a 10,000-word reply brief days after making the request to waive the word limit requirements. Judge Alan Lourie denied the request, telling SCI it must refile its reply brief, not to exceed 7,000 words, within 21 days of the June 21 order. The order comes despite appellant Sigma Corp. and the U.S. having consented to the move and SCI's claims that good cause existed for the use of more words, given the "voluminous nature of the Government's response brief" (see 2305250032) (Vandewater International v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1093).
Court of Federal Appeals Trade activity
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 22 issued its mandate in a case on the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China. The Federal Circuit said the Commerce Department properly valued an input of activated carbon using data from a country different from the primary surrogate nation (see 2305010028). The court said the agency's departure from its normal practice of preferring to take all the data from the primary surrogate country does not mean its decision was unsupported by substantial evidence (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-1298).
A July 13 oral argument related to Judge Pauline Newman's fitness to continue serving on the bench will be closed to the public, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit special committee ordered this week. In the June 20 order, the committee said that aside from an initial strong presumption of confidentiality in the proceeding, making the hearing public could jeopardize key information.
The Commerce Department incorrectly concluded that exemptions from Turkey's Bank and Insurance Transactions Tax (BITT) were countervailable subsidies, in the final results of the 2020 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey, exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret said in a June 21 complaint. Kaptan also took issue with Commerce's valuation benchmark for industrial land in Turkey (Kaptan Demir Çelik Endüstrisi ve Ticaret A.Ş. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00131).
The Commerce Department made subsidies an "afterthought" when it failed to properly evaluate their impact on potential surrogates in a case involving the administrative review of an antidumping duty order on steel nails from Oman, AD respondent Oman Fasteners told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a June 16 response brief (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1039).
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its mandate on June 16 in a case on whether the Commerce Department has the statutory authority to conduct expedited countervailing duty reviews. The appellate court said the agency does have the authority under the Uruguay Round Agreement Act's enactment of certain provisions that favor individual company determinations and the URAA's grant of regulatory-implementation power to Commerce (see 2304250061) (Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-1021).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit dismissed an appeal from Printing Textiles, doing business as Berger Textiles, for failing to file an opening brief. The company filed its suit to contest CBP's inaction on its requests to void two denied protests on Berger's Canvas Banner Matisse coated fabric imports, which were hit with antidumping duties on artist canvas from China. Berger claimed that the imports were not subject to the order and CBP should not have liquidated the entries since the Commerce Department had opened a scope inquiry on the imports. After the Court of International Trade tossed the suit for lack of jurisdiction under Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit in March rejected Berger's bid for a temporary injunction, which would have required CBP to return the goods to unliquidated status or suspend the firm's protests (see 2303160023) (Printing Textiles, dba Berger Textiles v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1576).
The Commerce Department may still use single respondents in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, despite a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that found fault with the practice in one proceeding, a Justice Department attorney said during Georgetown Law's Annual International Trade Update conference on June 13.
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