Exporters Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. and Carbon Activated Corp. on Jan. 9 dismissed their appeal of the Commerce Department's final results of the 2021-22 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China. Carbon Activated is pursuing other cases at the trade court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding prior reviews of the AD order (see 2311080037). No reason was given for the voluntary dismissal (Carbon Activated Tianjin Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00266).
The Commerce Department is set to lower the countervailing duty for two Chinese solar cell exporters, removing adverse facts available rates for certain programs and changing several cost calculation methods, it said in remand results filed with the Court of International Trade (Risen Energy Co. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00231).
On Jan. 8, the U.S. moved to dismiss an importer’s claim contesting CBP's decision to liquidate nine of its picture frame moulding entries, saying the Court of International Trade lacks subject matter jurisdiction to hear the case because the liquidations were related to the importer's prior disclosure (Larson-Juhl US v. U.S., CIT # 23-00032).
The U.S. defended its right not to turn over parts of the administrative record in a case on the decision to add exporter Ninestar Corp. to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, saying that the record is protected by the "informer's privilege" or is "law-enforcement sensitive" (Ninestar Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).
President Joe Biden renewed the nominations of Joseph Laroski and Lisa Wang to the Court of International Trade after the original nominations were returned to the president due to inaction in the full Senate. The Senate Judiciary Committee in September approved the nominations of Wang, assistant secretary of commerce for enforcement and compliance, and Laroski, partner at Schagrin Associates, with votes of 12-9 and 18-3, respectively (see 2309140054). When forwarded for Senate confirmation, no action was taken in 2023.
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade issued its judgment in a customs case on action camera maker GoPro Inc.'s camera housings just under two weeks after issuing its opinion in the case. In the Dec. 28 opinion, the court said the camera housings are camera parts and not cases, able to enter the U.S. duty-free (see 2312280038). On Jan. 9, Judge Timothy Reif granted GoPro's motion for summary judgment (GoPro Inc. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 20-00176).
A Moroccan exporter argued the Commerce Department can't ask open-ended questions about whether governments provided it any “other” subsidies, in questionnaires sent during administrative reviews (OCP S.A. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00261).
The U.S. defended the results, on voluntary remand, of its antidumping duty investigation on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany, saying the Commerce Department wasn't allowed to adjust its calculations of an exporter’s costs of production in response to a particular market situation (Ellwood City Forge Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00077).
Commenting upon the results of a second remand, Chinese cabinet exporter Ancientree Cabinet Co. challenged the Commerce Department’s continued use of adverse facts available when calculating the exporter’s countervailing duty rate, imposed because Commerce claimed it couldn't verify the exporter’s participation in China’s Export Buyer’s Credit Program (Dalian Meisen Woodworking Co. v. U.S., CIT # 20-00110).