The Commerce Department wrongly attributed two unrelated entities to an Indian glycine exporter and hit it with adverse facts available for not providing those two companies’ financial information, the exporter said June 3. It also alleged that the department failed to notify it of any deficiencies in its responses (Kumar Industries v. U.S., CIT # 23-00263).
In a Swiss watch classification case ongoing since 2018, the U.S. argued May 30 that the motion for judgment filed by the watches’ importer should be dismissed for lack of proof. Alternatively, it asked its own cross-motion for judgment be granted because the importer’s watches with gold alloy cases don’t fit under its preferred heading, as that heading, which covers watches with cases made of precious metals, specifically excludes gold (Ildico Inc. v. U.S., CIT #s 18-00136, -00076).
All plaintiffs filed a joint reply to the U.S. May 31 in a case regarding the number of Chinese-origin parts required for an entire wheel to be considered of Chinese origin -- rims, discs, or both -- under an antidumping duty order on steel trailer wheels (Asia Wheel v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00096).
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The Commerce Department stuck by its decision to use India as its primary surrogate country on remand at the Court of International Trade in a case on the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-00105).
The Court of International Trade on June 5 remanded the Commerce Department's surrogate value picks for the main factors of production, labor and by- and co-products of Vietnamese catfish in the 16th review of the AD order on the frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. Regarding the labor data, Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce can't overlook issues with the Indian data it used simply due to its preference for using surrogate values from one country. However, the court sustained Commerce's choice of Indian financial statements over Indonesian financial statements.
Judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit appeared skeptical that antidumping duty petitioner Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee could overcome the Court of International Trade's discretionary finding that the petitioner failed to adequately argue that third country sales must be "for consumption" in the third country market when determining normal value (Z.A. Sea Foods v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1469).
International trade attorney Stephen Morrison has joined Wiley Rein as an associate, departing Morris Manning after joining the firm in August 2023 (see 2308100043), according to his LinkedIn page. Morrison previously served as a law clerk at the Court of International Trade, 2021-2023.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. on May 31 opposed U.S. manufacturer Deer Park Glycine's bid to complete the record in a scope ruling case on calcium glycinate by including a scope ruling application from a separate proceeding. The government said a scope ruling application wasn't submitted during "this segment of the administrative proceeding" being challenged at the Court of International Trade, and the Commerce Department didn't "rely on it in reaching its determination not to initiate another scope inquiry regarding a product that had just been the subject of a final scope ruling" (Deer Park Glycine v. United States, CIT # 24-00016).