Another Brief Filed in Support of Aluminum Extrusion Producer's Bid to Join EAPA Litigation in CIT
Hialeah Aluminum Supply supports a Dominican aluminum extrusion producer's bid to join its lawsuit challenging an Enforce and Protect Act investigation into antidumping duty evasion. In a brief filed July 16, the importer said it supports a request from Kingtom Alumino, at the center of the challenged EAPA investigation (see 2106280026), for reconsideration of Kingtom's motion to intervene in the case.
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Hialeah said that it does not have first-hand knowledge of many of the relevant facts of the case and that Kingtom does. This will be critical for litigation since "counsel for Hialeah believes that its full and effective defense will rely in significant part on its ability to confer with counsel for Kingtom, particularly with regard to business proprietary information that the parties have access to for this first time in this appeal." Hialeah joins the other plaintiff, Global Aluminum Distributor, in supporting Kingtom's right to intervene. The EAPA petitioner, Ta Chen International, opposes it (see 2107080024).
In the EAPA investigation, CBP found Global Aluminum and Hialeah to be evading antidumping duties on aluminum extrusions from China. The customs agency found that the two companies evaded the duties by transshipping the goods through Kingtom in the Dominican Republic. Global Aluminum and Hialeah claim that Kingtom is the actual producer of the extrusions.
Judge Richard Eaton rejected Kingtom's bid to join the litigation, declaring that "Kingtom has failed to establish that its business interest in continuing to sell its aluminum extrusions to the plaintiff importers in this case without duties is an 'interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action,' as required for intervention as a matter of right under [CIT's rules]."