The Court of International Trade in an April 28 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's move to drop Section 232 duties from antidumping duty review respondent Power Steel's U.S. price for two entries of steel concrete rebar. The result is a de minimis dumping rate for Power Steel. In the one-page order, Judge Jane Restani said that as no party intends to submit further filings, the remand is sustained.

The Court of International Trade in a May 2 order rejected Canadian exporter J.D. Irving's bid to establish expedited briefing and consideration of its challenge to the Commerce Department's antidumping duty cash deposit instructions. Judge Timothy Reif said that the exporter failed to establish that "good cause" exists to expedite the case since the company's requested relief can be granted even after the deadline to withdraw its request for the fourth review of the AD order on softwood lumber products from Canada.

Importer Acquisition 362, doing business as Strategic Import Supply, didn't need to file a protest to establish jurisdiction to challenge the liquidation of its entries since there was nothing to protest within 180 days of liquidation, SIS said in an April 29 reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. DOJ continues to "improperly oversimplify the analysis" by repeating the "mantra" that the importer was required to file a protest to contest the liquidation of the entries, SIS argued, seeking remand to the Court of International Trade (Acquisition 362, LLC dba Strategic Import Supply v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #22-1161).

Importer DSM Nutritional Products moved on April 27 to designate a test case in its tariff classification challenge on beta-carotene products, in a bid to place six other cases under one other action at the Court of International Trade. Five of the other cases were brought by DSM (see 2110270052) and one other by American International Chemical (DSM Nutritional Products v. United States, CIT #17-00136).

The Commerce Department on remand at the Court of International Trade found that antidumping duty review respondent Shandong New Continent Tire accurately reported its U.S. sales prices and affiliated parties. After voluntarily requesting the remand, Commerce said it was able to verify New Continent's U.S. prices and affiliations in the highly redacted remand results (Pirelli Tyre v. U.S., CIT #20-00115).

The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping case, establishing a de minimis dumping margin for exporter Power Steel Co. As no party submitted any further filings over the remand results, Judge Jane Restani affirmed the remand in a one-page judgment. On remand, Commerce found that Power Steel didn't pay Section 232 duties on two entries of steel concrete rebar, dropping the duties from the company's sales prices when establishing its base export price.

The Court of International Trade granted steel company NLMK Pennsylvania's request to file a second amended complaint in its challenge to the Commerce Department's denials of the company's Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusion requests. The amended complaint tacks on two additional entries that were denied the Section 232 exclusions since they cover the same products. The motion went unopposed from the U.S. (NLMK Pennsylvania LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00507).

The U.S. moved for a stay of proceedings in an Enforce and Protect Act contest at the Court of International Trade after CBP found that a covered merchandise referral to the Commerce Department was needed after a voluntary remand request to reconsider its affirmative evasion finding (Fedmet Resources Corporation v. United States, CIT #21-00248).

A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion, Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. U.S., supports a group of mattress exporters' Court of International Trade case contesting an antidumping duty investigation on mattresses from Vietnam, the exporters said in an April 25 notice of supplemental authority. In Mid Continent, the Federal Circuit remanded the Commerce Department's decision to use a simple average to calculate the pooled standard deviation when using the Cohen's d test in its differential pricing analysis to target "masked dumping" (see 2204210031). The mattress exporters, led by Ashley Furniture Industries, seek to piggyback on this decision, arguing that it confirms their position that "the use of simple-average standard deviation rather than weighted-average or population standard deviation represents an unreasonable departure from the original intent of the developers of the Cohen’s d formula" (Ashley Furniture Industries v. United States, CIT #21-00283).

Court of International Trade Judge Timothy Reif denied a motion by importer Cozy Comfort for a conference to consider court-annexed mediation. In an April 26 opposition motion, the government argued that mediation would be inappropriate because there are still facts at issue and that mediation will likely be ineffective as long as the government is opposed. Reif agreed but said Cozy Comfort may renew its motion after discovery has been completed.