Another plaintiff group in a large, branching Vietnamese plywood circumvention investigation case raised exporter-specific arguments Jan. 2 against the Commerce Department’s adverse facts available-based circumvention finding for 20 exporters (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. United States, CIT Consol. # 23-00144).

CBP will liquidate importer Neo Chemicals & Oxides' mixed oxide products using a "first sale" transaction valuation method, the government and importer said in a stipulated judgment. Submitting the stipulation to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 6, the parties said the company's entries "will be appraised under the transaction value method based on the prices the middleman paid to the manufacturer." Neo brought the suit in 2021 seeking first sale valuation of its goods classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule headings 3815 and 2846 (see 2108190065) (Neo Chemicals & Oxides v. United States, CIT # 21-00453).

3D importer Quantified Operations on Jan. 5 asked the Court of International Trade to compel discovery in its classification case. The importer said the government was trying to hide behind the deliberative process privilege without meeting the procedural requirements for it (Quantified Operations Limited v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 22-00178).

The Court of International Trade will be closed Jan. 9 in observance of the national day of mourning for the late President Jimmy Carter, the court announced. The day will be considered a "legal holiday" for the purposes of computing time and motions to enlarge time under the court's Rule 6.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

Parties filed a stipulated judgment Jan. 3 for a 2012 case regarding imported light-sensitive materials used in photography (Tokyo Ohka Kogyo America v. United States, CIT # 12-00261).

After a remand, the Commerce Department continued to find the downstream products of Mexican pipe exporter Maquilacero S.A. de C.V. and auto-parts manufacturer Tecnicas de Fluidos S.A. de C.V. (TEFLU) were covered by an antidumping duty order on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube (Maquilacero S.A. de C.V. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00091).

The International Trade Commission erred when it found that aluminum extrusion exports from 14 nations didn't injure the U.S. industry, AD/CVD petitioners the U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition and the United Steelworkers argued in a Jan. 3 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The seven-count complaint challenged, among other things, the commission's conclusions that the extrusions didn't undersell the domestic like product nor have "significant adverse price effects" (U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition v. United States, CIT # 25-00001)

Antidumping petitioner Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment took to the Court of International Trade on Jan. 3 to challenge the Commerce Department's surrogate value picks in the 2022-23 review of the antidumping duty order on mobile access equipment from China. The petitioner filed a 12-count complaint to contest 12 different surrogate data picks (Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment v. United States, CIT # 24-00219).

A number of consolidated plaintiffs, who referred to themselves as “ST&R,” said Jan. 2 the U.S. “appear[ed] to concede” that the Commerce Department lacked adequate information when it determined multiple Vietnamese plywood exporters had been circumventing an antidumping duty order on hardwood plywood from China (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. United States, CIT Consol. # 23-00144).