Kazakhstani ferrosilicon exporter TNC Kazchrome JSC joined a Malaysian exporter in challenging the final determinations of the Commerce Department’s antidumping duty and countervailing duty investigations on its products (see 2507220068). It also challenged the International Trade Commission’s final injury determination (TNC Kazchrome JSC v. United States, CIT # 25-00127, -00128, -00129).
The Commerce Department adequately supported its de facto specificity finding regarding Indian state-run coal supplier Coal India's provision of coal to respondent Hindalco Inndustries for less than adequate remuneration, the Court of International Trade held in a July 22 decision. In the ruling, Judge Joseph Laroski also upheld Commerce's decision to use U.N. Comtrade data as a benchmark for calculating the size of the coal subsidy in the 2020-21 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on common alloy aluminum sheet from India.
Court of International Trade Judge Joseph Laroski held July 21 that importer Hanon Systems’ aluminum foil originated from China, not South Korea, sustaining a Commerce Department decision that analyzed the five mandatory factors in a country-of-origin analysis and found only two weighed in favor of China.
Domestic chlorinated isocyanurates producer Bio-Lab argued in a July 15 motion for judgment that the Commerce Department should have used Mexico, not Romania, as the primary surrogate in an antidumping duty review of chlorinated isocyanurates from China (Bio-Lab v. United States, CIT # 25-00054).
A group of constitutional scholars, legal historians, a former appellate judge, a former attorney general and three former U.S. senators urged the Supreme Court on July 17 to take up two importers' case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The amici argued that President Donald Trump's IEEPA tariffs clearly violate the constitutional order and, if upheld, would let the president use IEEPA " to reshape U.S. economic policy, and indeed the global economy more generally, without involving Congress" (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
Despite it being based on only two of five mandatory factors considered in a country-of-origin analysis, Court of International Trade Judge Joseph Laroski sustained July 21 the Commerce Department’s determination that the manufacturing process of aluminum foil importer Hanon System’s South Korean producer was minor and insignificant. Echoing similar recent decisions (see 2505160045, 2505190059 and 2505190054), Laroski said Commerce reasonably weighed the five factors in its decision.
The U.S. filed a complaint on July 15 in a case against importer Global Office Furniture and its owner Malcom Smith for allegedly violating the False Claims Act by knowingly underpaying duties on imported office chairs, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced. The case was originally filed in March 2020 by Sharon Joyce, former office manager for Global Office Furniture (United States v. Global Office Furniture, D.S.C. # 2:20-01223).
The U.S. is trying to rehash settled issues in a customs suit on the classification of Honeywell's precut, radial, chordal and web fabric pieces used in airplane brakes as part of an aircraft, Honeywell argued in a July 14 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. While the government argued that the court should have performed a GRI 2(a) analysis, Honeywell argued that no such analysis was needed and that, even assuming GRI 2 is applicable, "the result is the same" that the parts are properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8803 (Honeywell International v. United States, CIT # 17-00256).
The Court of International Trade on July upheld the Commerce Department's finding on remand that antidumping duty respondent Megaa Moda didn't have either actual or constructive knowledge that its sales to an unnamed company were destined for export to the U.S. Judge Thomas Aquilino said that while he may have come to a different conclusion upon reviewing the evidence de novo, it's not the court's role to substitute its judgment for Commerce's when the choice is "between two conflicting views."
The Commerce Department was right to find that the material terms of exporter Toyo Kohan’s U.S. sales were finalized the earlier of each sale’s shipment date or invoice date, the government and petitioner Thomas Steel Strip Corp. each said July 11 (Toyo Kohan Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00261).