The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated between Aug. 23 and Aug. 29 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
A Chinese exporter of multilayered wood flooring argued Aug. 29 that its 16 input suppliers weren’t under government control. The government policies in question didn’t contradict a Chinese government claim that party officials didn’t hold any ownership positions in a number of input suppliers, it said (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00136).
A Chinese exporter of multilayered wood flooring argued Aug. 29 that its 16 input suppliers weren’t under government control. The government policies in question didn’t contradict a Chinese government claim that party officials didn’t hold any ownership positions in a number of input suppliers, it said (Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00136).
South Korean exporter Hyundai Steel Co. opposed the Commerce Department's finding on remand that the Korean government's full allocation of carbon emission permits under the Korean Emissions Trading System (K-ETS) during the 2019 review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea was de facto specific. On remand, Commerce switched from a de jure to a de facto specificity finding (Hyundai Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00170).
A defendant-intervenor Korean exporter of superabsorbent polymers opposed the Commerce Department’s determination (see 2406170034), on remand, that would raise its antidumping margin from 17.64% to 26.05% (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. United States, CIT # 23-00010).
The Court of International Trade on Aug. 28 denied both the government's and importer HyAxiom's motions for judgment in a customs classification case on PC50 supermodules, which are a part of a stationary hydrogen fuel cell generator known as the PureCell Model 400. Judge Timothy Stanceu said a factual determination is needed on whether the PC50's "principal function" is gas generation.
Exporter Yingli Energy (China) Co. filed a complaint on Aug. 28 at the Court of International Trade to contest the Commerce Department's denial of its separate rate application in the 10th review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China, claiming that it showed its independence from Chinese state control (Yingli Energy (China) Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00131).
The Commerce Department didn’t rely on inaccurate data to reach a zero percent dumping margin for a mattress exporter, the U.S. said Aug. 26. It said any apparent data inconsistencies were simply the result of the department’s own estimation model, used to fill in information that the exporter hadn’t tracked (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. U.S., CITConsol. # 21-00277).
Exporter Your Standing International argued on Aug. 26 at the Court of International Trade that the Commerce Department erred in using the financial statements of Taiwanese company San Shing Fastech Corporation in calculating Your Standing's constructed value profit in the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from Taiwan (Your Standing International v. United States, CIT # 24-00055).
Importers led by Sweet Harvest Foods argued on Aug. 23 that the government's claims in defense of its affirmative critical circumstances determination on the importers' Vietnamese honey imports "contravene the plain language and logic of the statute." Filing a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Sweet Harvest said the statute plainly tells the International Trade Commission to conduct an "inherently forward-looking analysis" in assessing whether imports from the 90-day critical circumstances period will likely undermine the remedial effect of the antidumping duty order and that any arguments to the contrary undercut this clear message (Sweet Harvest Foods v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1370).