The U.S. agreed to classify importer Jing Mei Automotive (USA)'s rear drive axle covers and front axle covers under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 8708.70.60, dutiable at 2.5%, according to stipulated judgments the government and Jing Mei filed in a trio of cases at the Court of International Trade (Jing Mei Automotive (USA) v. United States, CIT #'s 14-00281, 14-00060, 14-00003).
The Court of International Trade did not err in classifying The Comfy, an oversized pullover imported by Cozy Comfort, as a pullover of Harmonized Tariff Schedule 6110 and not a blanket of heading 6301, the U.S. argued in a Dec. 19 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Cozy Comfort v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1889).
CBP stuck with its finding that exporter Kingtom Aluminio uses forced labor in manufacturing aluminum extrusions following a decision from the Court of International Trade that the agency failed to adequately explain its initial forced labor finding. CBP found that "Kingtom submitted its employees to situations that align with multiple [International Labour Organization] (ILO) indicators of forced labor" (Kingtom Aluminio v. United States, CIT # 24-00264).
The Commerce Department did not improperly "relitigate" a previous negative injury finding on freight rail couplers from China when it conducted its antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into the same products less than two years after negative injury determination, the Court of International Trade held on Dec. 23. Judge Gary Katzmann said the scope of the previous and present AD/CVD proceedings are different in three key ways: they cover different physical merchandise, concern different countries of origin and cover different periods of review, sufficiently distinguishing the proceedings. However, Katzmann remanded the AD/CVD investigations on the basis that Commerce improperly disclaimed the authority to modify the orders' scope language based on an argument from importer Wabtec that the petitioner's theory of injury isn't cognizable regarding freight rail couplers that are imported attached to new rail cars.
Importer Wanxiang America agreed to pay over $53 million to settle claims that the company unlawfully avoided antidumping duties on its car part entries, DOJ announced. The settlement was filed at the Court of International Trade and resolves the government's customs penalty case against Wanxiang in which it was seeking $97 million from the company (see 2512180043).
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade remanded the Commerce Department's expedited countervailing duty review on Canadian softwood lumber for the ninth time on Dec. 18, finding the agency abused its discretion in declining to reopen the record to let respondent Les Produits Forestiers D&G and its cross-owned affiliate Les Produits Forestiers Portbec add information to help distinguish sales affected by subsidies to unaffiliated input suppliers.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 19 denied exporter Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co.'s bid to add an Excel data file to the record in the company's case against the antidumping duty investigation on Chinese paper plates. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves held that Fuzhou Hengli failed to adhere to the Commerce Department's procedures, since the company only filed its submission "on the one-day lag system on a temporary basis in connection with the barcode of the non-final rebuttal brief" and never re-filed the submission "after one business day with the final rebuttal brief."
The following lawsuits were filed recently at the Court of International Trade:
The U.S. and importer Wanxiang America agreed to settle a customs penalty case against the importer in which the U.S. was seeking $97 million for unpaid antidumping duties on the company's car part entries. Counsel for Wanxiang America didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.