The Commerce Department ignored evidence against an objector's claim that it could provide domestic tin mill products to make up the shortfall when it denied Section 232 exclusion requests for tin mill products by Seneca Foods, the company continued to argue during July 11 oral arguments at the Court of International Trade (Seneca Foods Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 22-00243).

The Commerce Department shouldn't have relied on adverse facts available in an antidumping duty review on tapered roller bearings from China for a fully cooperative entity that attempted to obtain information from its suppliers but couldn't secure their cooperation, Chinese bearing exporter Shanghai Tainai Bearing said in a July 13 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. Court precedent doesn't require a party to provide information not in its possession and which it can't reasonably obtain, the company said (Shanghai Tainai Bearing v. U.S., CIT # 23-00020).

The Court of International Trade sent back parts of the Commerce Department's 2018-19 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. Judge M. Miller Baker said that while Commerce understands the concepts of sameness and comparability to "represent different concepts" when picking surrogate nations, the agency "misapplied the statutory standard" by excluding candidate surrogates that had a comparable level of economic development. The judge also upheld Commerce's decision not to grant exporter Dotaseafood a higher rate beyond the countrywide margin for failing to cooperate to the best of its ability given that the company did not rebut the presumption of state control. Lastly, Baker said exporter Nam Viet was legally granted a separate rate after the judge refused to reweigh evidence regarding the company's reporting of its affiliates.

The Court of International Trade on July 14 upheld the Commerce Department's decisions in an antidumping duty review to disregard respondent Nexteel's accounting method and classify the company's losses from suspension of production lines as general and administrative expenses (G&A) instead of costs of goods sold (COGS). Judge Claire Kelly said that Commerce, in the 2016-2017 administrative review on welded line pipe from South Korea, "adequately explains that the depreciation and other costs" linked with suspended production lines "are more akin to a company-wide cost" instead of a cost of manufacturing borne by specific products.

The Court of International Trade erred by sustaining the Commerce Department’s conclusions regarding cost smoothing, cost reconciliation, and differential pricing in the antidumping duty investigation on wind towers from Canada, respondent Marmem said in a July 10 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Marmen v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 2023-1877).

The Commerce Department legally weight-averaged or "smoothed" antidumping duty respondent Dongkuk S&C Co.'s "disparate" steel plate costs in the AD investigation on utility scale wind towers from South Korea, the government and petitioner Wind Tower Trade Coalition argued in a pair of reply briefs at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Dongkuk S&C Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1419).

The Commerce Department stuck with its use of adverse facts available for countervailing duty respondent Risen Energy for its alleged use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, in spite of a second Court of International Trade remand requiring Commerce to reconsider the issue, among others. In the remand results, Commerce also reevaluated its use of Thai land prices when calculating benefits for respondents JA Solar and Risen and its benchmark data for ocean freight, dropping JA Solar's CVD rate from 7.75% to 7.68% and Risen's from 9.84% to 9.69% (Risen Energy v. U.S., CIT # 20-03912).

The Court of International Trade in a July 13 opinion dismissed a lawsuit from PrimeSource Building Products against President Donald Trump's move to expand Section 232 national security tariffs onto steel and aluminum "derivative" products pursuant to the mandate issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The White House on July 11 officially sent the Senate its two nominees to fill vacancies on the Court of International Trade. The Commerce Department's Lisa Wang and Schagrin Associates' Joseph Laroski were nominated to fill the seats left by Judges Leo Gordon and Timothy Stanceu, respectively.

The Court of International Trade granted importer World Wide Packaging's bid to dismiss its case on the classification of plastic tubes and caps from China due to a settlement. The case, which challenges CBP's classification of the goods based on the post-importation sale to its downstream U.S. customers, was stayed so the parties could discuss whether the appeal could be subject to a stipulated judgment (see 2108090034) (World Wide Packaging, LLC v. United States, CIT # 21-00189).