Importer Cozy Comfort on Oct. 1 said that the government is seeking to exclude evidence offered by the importer in its tariff classification case that the government itself is looking to enter into evidence. Cozy Comfort said the U.S. "cannot have it both ways," adding that the government's motion to exclude the evidence "is riddled with self-serving arguments, wasting the Court's time" (Cozy Comfort Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00173).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 2 denied exporter Chandan Steel Limited's motion for reconsideration of the court's order sustaining the exporter's 145.25% total adverse facts available rate in the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel flanges. Chandan said the trade court failed to address all of its arguments in its decision, including that Commerce should have limited its use of AFA solely to the individual U.S. sales for which information was missing. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that while Commerce had the authority to take that path, it wasn't required to by the statute and that the decision to use total AFA was justified.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Oct. 1 granted dismissal of government's appeal contesting the erroneous deemed liquidation of its goods that were subject to suspended liquidation. The Court of International Trade had ruled Fraserview didn't need a protest to file its suit (see 2401250039). CIT said that because the statute for deemed liquidation requires that the entries not be suspended, CBP's notices of deemed liquidation didn't operate to actually liquidate the entries. The U.S. appealed the decision but dropped the matter in a joint stipulation filed in September (see 2409060005) (Fraserview Remanufacturing v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-2049).
The U.S. and Indian exporters led by Kisaan Die Tech Private Limited on Sept. 30 reached a settlement in pair of cases on the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on stainless steel flanges from India (Kisaan Die Tech Private Limited v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00512).
After the Commerce Department once again refused in an administrative review to investigate an alleged countervailable subsidy provided by the South Korean government, the original investigation’s petitioner claimed the department’s results upon remand (see 2408160038) actually showed a reluctance on Commerce's part to investigate time of use electricity supply systems that can sustain themselves annually (Nucor Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 21-00182).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 1 ordered that an evidentiary hearing be held on Oct. 16 in a suit from importer Retractable Technologies on the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative's 100% Section 301 tariff hike on needles and syringes. The importer filed the suit to seek a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction on the duties, claiming the tariffs could send it out of business (see 2409270025) (Retractable Technologies v. United States, CIT # 24-00185).
A number of plaintiffs in a large case opposing a scope inquiry and finding of circumvention for hardwood plywood raised Sept. 30 the new Loper Bright standard of deference. They said that the whole point of the now-defunct Chevron standard was to delegate authority to agencies in deference to agency expertise for technical issues; the U.S. can’t make the same argument now that that exact argument has been explicitly overturned, they said (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00144).
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DOJ and exporters led by Baroque clashed in oral argument Sept. 26 before Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif over whether the Commerce Department should look to broader, less specific datasets in calculating Tier 2 world benchmark prices or to smaller, narrower ones (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 22-00210).
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 2 sustained the Commerce Department's final scope ruling excluding engines with horizontal crankshafts from the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on vertical shaft engines between 99cc and up to 225cc from China. Commerce excluded the engines from the orders on remand from the trade court. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said the agency "complied with the Court's remand order" in excluding the engines.