The Korean Emission Trading Scheme (KETS) provided no benefit to Hyundai Steel for the purposes of a countervailing duty review and, in fact, imposed costs, Hyundai said in its June 16 brief in support of a motion for judgment. Hyundai asked the court to remand the review to the Commerce Department, arguing the department's decision to countervail the KETS program was a "perversion of the CVD law" and ignored that the program benefits the South Korean government and operates to Hyundai Steel’s detriment (Hyundai Steel v. U.S., CIT # 22-00170).

The Commerce Department continued to find that importer Valeo North America's T-series aluminum sheet falls under the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum sheet from China, in remand results submitted June 20 at the Court of International Trade. After Judge Mark Barnett sent back the decision for exceeding the limits of a (k)(1) analysis and so the agency could address evidence that Valeo's aluminum sheet undergoes heat treatment, Commerce said that Valeo's T-series sheet does not undergo solution heat-treatment and is subject to duties (Valeo North America v. United States, CIT # 21-00581).

The Commerce Department incorrectly concluded that exemptions from Turkey's Bank and Insurance Transactions Tax (BITT) were countervailable subsidies, in the final results of the 2020 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey, exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret said in a June 21 complaint. Kaptan also took issue with Commerce's valuation benchmark for industrial land in Turkey (Kaptan Demir Çelik Endüstrisi ve Ticaret A.Ş. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00131).

Certain claims from conservation groups Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society may continue despite the fact that the administrative decision they are challenging has expired, the Court of International Trade ruled in a June 21 opinion. Judge Gary Katzmann said that an element of Sea Shepherd's challenge is capable of repetition from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and evading review, allowing a claim seeking declaratory relief to proceed. But because the decision expired, the judge said the prospect of injunctive relief was moot.

Italian pasta exporters La Molisana and Valdigrano di Flavio Pagani will appeal a Court of International Trade decision upholding the Commerce Department's 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on pasta from Italy. Per the notice of appeal, the exporters will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In the opinion, the trade court said Commerce permissibly refused to adjust its threshold for differentiating between types of pasta in its duty calculations (see 2304240035). La Molisana claimed Commerce's "breakpoint" of 12.5% protein content did not reflect the market reality, but Judge Richard Eaton held that the company's evidence was not applicable industrywide, making it "unreliable and insufficient" (La Molisana v. United States, CIT # 21-00291).

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The Court of International Trade in a June 21 opinion rejected the U.S. motion to dismiss one count of a suit brought by Sea Shepherd New Zealand and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The plaintiffs challenged the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 2020 findings that New Zealand's standards for its West Coast North Island inshore trawl and set net fisheries were comparable with U.S. regulations. The U.S. said that because the comparability findings expired, the claims were moot. Judge Gary Katzmann ruled that while injunctive relief against the findings were moot, one element of Sea Shepherd's argument was live because it's capable of repetition and evading review.

The Court of International Trade on June 20 upheld CBP's finding that importer Skyview Cabinet USA evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on wooden cabinets and vanities from China. Judge Stephen Vaden said that, contrary to Skyview's claims, CBP adequately found that "contradictions, omissions, and inconsistencies" in the company's submissions were enough to find the data to not be credible and that the record backs the evasion findings against the firm.

The Commerce Department complied with a remand order from the Court of International Trade by adding a respondent to its antidumping duty investigation on utility-scale wind towers from Spain, but did not alter its all-others rate, in remand results submitted to the trade court June 16 (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy v. U.S., CIT # 21-00449).

The Commerce Department said that hardwood plywood exported to the U.S. by the Vietnam Finewood Company made using two-ply panels imported into Vietnam from China are outside the scope of antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China, in remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade on June 15. The agency said under protest that the goods are not subject to the duties since the trade court ruled that the scope language "unambiguously" shows that the orders do not include Chinese two-ply panels (Vietnam Finewood Company v. United States, CIT # 22-00049).