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.

The Court of International Trade's ruling that a product is "imported" for duty drawback purposes when it's admitted into a foreign-trade zone and not when entered for domestic consumption would lead to a partial repeal of the FTZ Act, importer King Maker Marketing argued in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. King Maker said the trade court's decision would lead to "absurd and anomalous results," since it would require finding the clock for drawback claims to start before the right to make the claim accrues (King Maker Marketing v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 25-1819).

Gina Justice has become the clerk of the Court of International Trade following the retirement of Mario Toscano, Justice announced on LinkedIn. For the past decade, Justice worked as the trial court administrator for Florida's 13th Judicial Circuit, which is the state court system encompassing Tampa. Prior to joining the Florida court system, Justice worked for over 30 years for courts in Hawaii and Southern California, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Importer Geotab said in a Sept. 30 complaint that its "GO Devices" -- used for “vehicle tracking and telematics” -- should've been classified as “other apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images or other data,” not “radio navigational aid apparatus.” As a result, they should have been liquidated under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 8517, which provides for a 7.5% Section 301 duty on Chinese-origin products, not heading 8526, which carries a 25% Section 301 duty (Geotab Inc. v. United States, CIT # 23-00185).

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit denied the government's attempt to stay the case from members of Blackfeet Nation against the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act due to the federal government shutdown as "unnecessary" in light of the court's order issued in response to the shutdown (Susan Webber v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 9th Cir. # 25-2717).

Court of International Trade judges Mark Barnett, Joseph Laroski, Lisa Wang, Jennifer Choe-Groves, M. Miller Baker, Claire Kelly, Timothy Reif and Richard Eaton stayed various cases before them after the government asked for a stay in light of the federal government shutdown.

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 1 sent back the Commerce Department's decision to deny antidumping duty respondent Ditar's request for a level-of-trade analysis in the AD investigation on shopping bags from Colombia.

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 1 sent back the Commerce Department's finding that antidumping duty respondent Ditar correctly reported an individual transaction, dubbed "Transaction X," as a home market sale in the AD investigation on shopping bags from Colombia. Judge M. Miller Baker said on remand the agency must address whether Ditar had "actual" knowledge of whether Transaction X was destined for export "without importing evidence relevant only to" whether Ditar had "constructive" knowledge that the sale was for export.

Domestic thermal paper producers on Sept. 29 opposed the Commerce Department’s continued inclusion, after a remand, of interest accrued on unpaid antidumping duties in its calculation of German exporter Koehler Paper’s normal value for an AD investigation (Matra Americas v. United States, CIT # 21-00632).