The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held oral argument on Nov. 4 in a pair of cases on the International Trade Commission's treatment of business proprietary information in injury proceedings. Judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Taranto and Raymond Chen pressed Courtney McNamara, counsel for the ITC, on the commission's policy of treating questionnaire submissions as confidential; on the Court of International Trade's separate authority to publicize information deemed confidential by the ITC; and on whether notice should be provided to the commission prior to the trade court's exercise of that authority (In Re United States, Fed. Cir. #s 24-1566, 25-127).
The Court of International Trade will be closed on Nov. 28 and Dec. 26 in addition to the federal holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, the court announced. Both days, Nov. 28 (the Friday after Thanksgiving) and Dec. 26 (the Friday after Christmas), will be considered a "legal holiday" by the court for purposes of the "computation of time and motions to enlarge time," the court said.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said on Oct. 31 that all scheduled arguments will proceed as scheduled despite the federal government shutdown. The appellate court has a full slate of cases scheduled for argument from Nov. 3 to Nov. 6, including two appeals from the Court of International Trade. The court added that "all filing deadlines remain in effect" and that jointly filed or unopposed motions for extensions of time for "briefs and other deadlines in non-calendared cases" will be generally granted for up to 60 days. The court said electronic case filing will remain available through CM/ECF.
No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.
The U.S. filed a notice of supplemental authority at the Court of International Trade in a case on an antidumping and countervailing duty injury proceeding in light of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in Sweet Harvest Foods v. U.S. (NURA USA v. United States, CIT Consol. # 24-00182).
Importer Lanxess argued again Oct. 31 that its polymerization accelerator -- a substance used to accelerate the chemical process of plastic manufacturing -- is properly classified as a “supported catalyst,” not as a chemical preparation (Lanxess Corporation v. United States, CIT # 23-00073).
The following lawsuit was filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department improperly used adverse facts available against antidumping duty respondent Oman Aluminium Rolling Company for its failure to report information on the company's movement expenses and its collection of freight revenues in the 2022-23 administrative review of the AD order on aluminum foil from Oman, Oman Aluminium argued in a complaint filed at the Court of International Trade (Oman Aluminium Rolling Company v. United States, CIT # 25-00215).
Dominican aluminum extrusions exporter Kingtom Aluminio, which faces a CBP forced labor finding, defended Oct. 31 the Court of International Trade’s decision to vacate the finding pending the conclusion of litigation. It declared that “[i]ts very survival is in jeopardy” due to the finding (Kingtom Aluminio v. United States, CIT # 24-00264).
The U.S. agreed to stay the effective date of an import ban for swimming crab fisheries in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka pending the National Marine Fisheries Service's reconsideration of the comparability findings for these fisheries (National Fisheries Institute v. United States, CIT # 25-00223).