Despite hotly contested litigation in the lower court, the Justice Department has been notably absent from an appeal of an antidumping case initially brought by exporter Goodluck India Limited. During May 3 oral argument in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, counsel for a group of tubing producers appealing the case refused to speculate on the government's lack of participation in the case but did point out that the Commerce Department did file its remand determination under respectful protest in the initial Court of International Trade proceedings (Goodluck India Limited, v. U.S. et al., Fed. Cir. # 2020-2017).
Court of International Trade activity
Court of International Trade Judge Richard Eaton issued opinions for two antidumping and countervailing cases, sustaining the second remand results in one and remanding the application of adverse facts available in another.
Negative injury determinations that ended antidumping duty investigations on polyethylene terephthalate resin from Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan in 2018 will stand, after the Court of International Trade sustained a remand redetermination from the International Trade Commission that provided further explanation of the ITC’s decisions without any changes to the end result.
The Commerce Department backed its decision to not collapse companies into a single entity in an antidumping case, according to a May 5 reply brief to the Court of International Trade in support of the agency's remand redetermination. In a final affirmative antidumping duty determination on stainless steel flanges from India, Commerce originally consolidated Echjay, Echjay Industries Private Limited, Echjay Forgins Industry Private Limited and Spire Industries Private Limited into one entity since they were all owned by the Doshi family in India. After a CIT remand, Commerce reversed course, finding substantial evidence, including decrees from the Bombay High Court, indicating a “familial and business separation” between the companies. In its reply, Commerce addressed opposition from petitioners to the remand redetermination, and included a detailed analysis of why the companies are not affiliated and thus do not warrant being collapsed into a single entity.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade on May 5 sustained a recalculation of an exporter’s antidumping duty rate set in a recent administrative review on solar cells from China. The trade court had in October remanded Commerce’s final results of the 2016-17 review to the agency, after finding Commerce improperly applied partial adverse facts available to the rate it assigned to Risen Energy based on the refusal of Risen’s unaffiliated suppliers to cooperate in the review. CIT said AFA rates must promote cooperation and accuracy, and Commerce didn’t explain how Risen’s AFA rate did so. On remand, Commerce switched to neutral facts available for the relevant portion of Risen’s rate calculation, but did so “under respectful protest.” The agency’s “decision not to use partial AFA to calculate Risen’s dumping margin is consistent with the directive … that accuracy must be the driving force behind a decision to draw an adverse inference,” CIT said.
Following a key decision from the Court of International Trade striking down Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum "derivatives" (see 2104050049), steel nail importer Hilti filed a lawsuit of its own in the court seeking to reap the benefits. In a May 5 complaint, Hilti made several arguments similar to those in PrimeSource Building Products, Inc. v. United States, et al. Among other things, Hilti said the already struck-down Section 232 tariff expansion to include steel derivatives was improper because there was no underlying report from the Commerce Department (Hilti, Inc., v. U.S. et al., CIT # 21-00216).
The Court of International Trade on May 5 upheld the Commerce Department's rejection of Vietnamese steel exporter Vnsteel-Phu My Flat Steel Co.'s (PMF) quantity and value questionnaire in an antidumping duty circumvention case. In the opinion, Judge Timothy Reif sided with Commerce, ruling that the agency's decision to instead apply adverse facts available was in accordance with the law, given PMF's incomplete, then untimely resubmission of, the Q&V questionnaire form.
The Court of International Trade issued two decisions related to the application of adverse facts available in antidumping duty proceedings on solar cells from China and cold-rolled steel flat products from South Korea shipped through Vietnam.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade: