Heat-treated forged steel rods imported by ME Global are properly classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule as "other bars" not further worked than forged, rather than in the importer's preferred classification as "grinding balls and similar articles for mills," the Court of International Trade ruled in a May 2 decision.

Plaintiffs led by Bioparques de Occidente have jurisdiction to challenge the Commerce Department's decision to resume an antidumping duty investigation following the termination of a suspension agreement, the Court of International Trade ruled. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said that since the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that no challenges to restarting investigations are valid unless part of a challenge to a final determination (see 2204140067), and Bioparques' case challenges a final determination, the court has jurisdiction to hear these claims.

The Court of International Trade sent back the Commerce Department's remand results in a case on the countervailing duty investigation on wood cabinets and vanities from China. After initially being instructed to find a practical solution to the issue of verifying non-use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, Commerce asked CVD respondents Dalian Meisen Woodworking Co. and the Ancientree Cabinet Co. to submit all loan information for each U.S. customer. Meisen found the information irrelevant and did not submit it in the form requested by the agency, while Ancientree submitted loan information for around 90% of its customers. Judge Richard Eaton upheld the use of adverse facts available on Meisen but sent back the decision for Ancientree, finding that perfection is not required to verify non-use.

Counterweights for mini-excavators are "backhoe" parts and should not be excluded from Section 301 tariffs, DOJ argued in an April 28 brief at the Court of International Trade. The brief bolstered the government's January motion for judgment (see 2301240063) by arguing that the Bobcat mini-excavators that the counterweights are "designed for and exclusively used on" are themselves "backhoes" (Norca Engineered Products v. U.S., CIT # 21-00305)

The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty review on activated carbon from China. In an April 28 opinion, Judge Mark Barnett said the court was satisfied with the agency's further explanation of its surrogate value selection for coal-based carbonized materials and its selection of financial statements used to calculate surrogate ratios.

The South Korean government doesn't provide a countervailable subsidy to the South Korean steel industry through the provision of electricity for less than adequate remuneration, the Court of International Trade ruled April 28. Judge Mark Barnett sustained the results of the Commerce Department's 2019 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Barnett said Commerce has considerable leeway to make reasonable methodological choices like it did in the review.

The Commerce Department properly hit Greek exporter Corinth Pipeworks Pipe Industry with a 41.04% total adverse facts available antidumping duty rate, given that its reported costs were not reconciled to its normal books and records, the Court of International Trade ruled. Judge Leo Gordon said the law does not require Commerce to respond to Corinth's arguments on its use of total AFA, which the agency employed in the first instance amid the final results of the first administrative review of the antidumping duty order on large diameter welded pipe from Greece.

A product's use is not a consideration regarding its classification at the subheading level when neither Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading the product could belong to is a use provision, the Court of International Trade ruled. Finding that ME Global’s heat-treated forged steel rods fell under CBP’s preferred classification of subheading 7228.40.00 as “other bars and rods, not further worked than forged,” Judge Richard Eaton said that ME Global could not use the products’ use nor reference to a subheading given that the court was evaluating two eo nomine headings. Eaton added that heading 7228 was more specific than 7236 and that subheading 7228.40.00 was more specific than 7228.30.80.

U.S. Steel Corp. moved to voluntarily dismiss its appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit over the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test as part of its differential pricing analysis to root out "masked" dumping. U.S. Steel said the other parties in the case consented to the motion. The Federal Circuit reactivated the appeal after putting it on hold pending a bid to reconsider the underlying Court of International Trade decision. CIT previously denied exporter SeAH Steel's motion for reconsideration of its decision finding Commerce adequately addressed the Federal Circuit's concerns over the use of the d test in its Stupp decision (see 2302270049) (SeAH Steel v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1109).

The standard for whether a surrogate financial statement is considered publicly available so it can be used in an antidumping duty proceeding says that "interested parties may independently access the information," the government said in a reply brief at the Court of International Trade (Ashley Furniture Industries v. United States, CIT # 21-00283).