The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 30 issued its mandate in an antidumping duty case brought by importer PrimeSource Building Products and exporter Cheng Ch International Co. The court held in its decision that the Commerce Department's use of only adverse facts available rates to set the rate for the non-individually examined respondents in antidumping proceedings, known as the "expected method," isn't presumptively unreasonable (see 2408070020) (PrimeSource Building Products v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2128).
Court of Federal Appeals Trade activity
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 24 recaptioned an appeal of an antidumping duty case after importer Worldwide Distribution said it no longer wishes to take part in the case, given that it failed to file a notice of appeal (see 2409160010). As a result, the court lifted the stay in the case and gave exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container 60 days to file its opening brief. Sahamitr originally brought suit to challenge the 2019-20 review of the AD order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand. The Court of International Trade said Sahamitr failed to undermine Commerce's finding that the company's monthly-based calculation of its sales costs were distortive (see 2405020029) (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-2043).
The Commerce Department on Sept. 23 said that it can permissibly use "inter-quarter comparisons" in the Cohen's d test while detecting "masked" dumping while using "same-quarter comparisons" in its margin calculations. The agency said that "fluctuating production costs," which call for same-quarter comparisons in calculating antidumping duty margins, "do not introduce distortions into the comparison of U.S. prices with other U.S. prices in the Cohen's d test" (Universal Tube and Plastic Industries v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00113).
The International Trade Commission on Sept. 23 opposed exporter Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari's (Erdemir's) motion to consolidate three of its appeals at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit involving the sunset review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Turkey (Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari v. International Trade Commission, Fed. Cir. # 24-2242).
A German exporter of steel used to transport corrosive materials responded Sept. 20 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to a U.S. claim that the Commerce Department's decision to calculate certain of the exporter’s production costs for a review using the items' sales values was rational because the figures “came from Dillinger’s own books and records” (AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1498).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 18 issued its mandate in a countervailing duty case after rejecting a motion for rehearing from the governments of Canada and Quebec and exporter Marmen Energie Inc. The parties asked the court to revisit its decision sustaining the countervailability of a Canadian tax program in the CVD investigation on utility scale wind towers from Canada (see 2409120009). The tax program relates to the additional depreciation for certain Class 1 assets. The appellate court said deductions given to Marmen in addition to the standard 4% depreciation rate amount to forgone revenue for the Canadian government (see 2406210031) (Government of Quebec v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-1807).
Importer Nutricia North America told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 18 that the government's claims in a customs suit on the company's medical foods present "several fundamental flaws." Nutricia argued that, despite the government's claim that the products are barred from Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 3004 due to Note 1(a) to chapter 30, the medical foods "easily fall within the terms of heading 3004 as 'medicaments ... for therapeutic uses'" (Nutricia North America v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1436).
An importer of weekly/monthly planners told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 18 that it and the government were in agreement that the Court of International Trade had committed a reversible error by classifying its planners as diaries (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1710).
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Sept. 12 allowed the Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations appear as an amicus in a case on the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test to detect "masked" dumping. The committee filed the brief to respond to claims from other amici led by the Canadian government, which invoked various academic literature on the use of the test (see 2408230010) (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1556).