The Commerce Department erred in deciding to "smooth" antidumping duty respondent Prolamsa's production costs in the 2022-23 administrative review of the AD order on heavy walled rectangular carbon welded steel pipes and tubes from Mexico, Prolamsa argued in an Oct. 3 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Productos Laminados de Monterrey v. United States, CIT # 25-00195).

The Commerce Department properly decided on remand not to countervail an exemption from Turkey's Banking and Insurance Transactions Tax on foreign exchange transactions, the Court of International Trade held in an Oct. 6 decision. In upholding the 2023 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey, Judge Gary Katzmann also sustained Commerce's decision to use a report from Colliers International as the benchmark for valuing the rent-free lease of land to respondent Kaptan's affiliate Nur over a report from Cushman & Wakefield.

Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann remanded Oct. 6 parts of the Commerce Department’s 2021 review of the countervailing duty order on steel rebar from Turkey, asking the department to rework its application of adverse facts available to Kaptan Demir’s use of a social security benefits law, Turkish Law 27256. He agreed the department had based its decision solely on information it had declined to add to the record.

The Commerce Department erred in using likely selling prices as facts otherwise available for antidumping duty respondent AG der Dillinger Huttenwerke's cost of production, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held on Oct. 6. Judges Alan Lourie, Timothy Dyk and Jimmie Reyna held that where there's a gap to fill on the record, "there must be a reasonable relationship between the selected facts otherwise available and the gap to be filled."

Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann granted the government's stay request in various cases before him, due to the federal government shutdown. The judge gave the U.S. five days to file a status report after the shutdown ends to propose revised deadlines for the cases. Katzmann's approach differs slightly from the other judges, who largely also stayed the cases in which the U.S. had requested a pause, though the judges gave the U.S. a range of seven to 14 days to file a status report (see 2510020051). Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves extended the government's deadlines "commensurate with the duration of the lapse in appropriations," while Judge Jane Restani was the only judge to deny the stay motions, writing that the U.S. can seek specific relief if a deadline looms before the end of the shutdown.

Court of International Trade Judge Thomas Aquilino is now an inactive judge at the trade court, CIT Clerk of Court Gina Justice confirmed to Trade Law Daily. Judge Mark Barnett reassigned the cases pending before Aquilino to other CIT judges. Justice said Aquilino, who was appointed to the court in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan, is "subject to recall if needed." The judge assumed senior status in 2004.

Importer Detroit Axle opposed the government's motions for an extension of time to respond to the company's motions for leave to amend its complaint and for partial summary judgment in its case against President Donald Trump's decision to end the de minimis threshold for goods from China. Detroit Axle said the U.S. "has failed to establish 'good cause'" for being given another 35 days to respond to the motions to amend and for partial summary judgment if the Court of International Trade dissolves the stay of the case (Axle of Dearborn d/b/a Detroit Axle v. United States, CIT # 25-00091).

Commerce wrongly requested from a mandatory respondent in a countervailing duty administrative review information about five government programs the department never determined were countervailable subsidies, exporter OCP said Sept. 30 (OCP v. United States, CIT Consol. # 24-00227).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Oct. 2 scheduled a pair of cases for oral argument on Nov. 4 regarding the International Trade Commission's policy of redacting business proprietary information in questionnaire responses. The court said the two sides, which are the ITC and two court-appointed amici, will each get 20 minutes, with the two amici -- patent attorney Andrew Dhuey and Alex Moss, the executive director of the Public Interest Patent Law Institute -- splitting their 20 minutes (In Re United States, Fed. Cir. #s 24-1566, 25-127).

The Court of International on Oct. 6 sustained the Commerce Department's 2023 review of the countervailing duty order on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey. Following a remand on the agency's de jure specificity finding of an exemption from Turkey's Banking and Insurance Transactions Tax on foreign exchange transactions and its selection of a report from Colliers international to use as the benchmark to value rent-free lease of land to respondent Kaptan's affiliate, Judge Gary Katzmann upheld Commerce's decisions not to countervail the tax exemption but to stick with the Colliers report. Regarding the specificity determination, Katzmann said he already rejected the claims that the tax exemption was de jure specific, adding that the agency operated within its discretion in not engaging in more of a de facto specificity investigation or using adverse facts available given the Turkish government's failure to provide requested information on remand.