The Commerce Department improperly used adverse facts available against antidumping duty respondent Oman Aluminium Rolling Company for its failure to report information on the company's movement expenses and its collection of freight revenues in the 2022-23 administrative review of the AD order on aluminum foil from Oman, Oman Aluminium argued in a complaint filed at the Court of International Trade (Oman Aluminium Rolling Company v. United States, CIT # 25-00215).

Dominican aluminum extrusions exporter Kingtom Aluminio, which faces a CBP forced labor finding, defended Oct. 31 the Court of International Trade’s decision to vacate the finding pending the conclusion of litigation. It declared that “[i]ts very survival is in jeopardy” due to the finding (Kingtom Aluminio v. United States, CIT # 24-00264).

The U.S. agreed to stay the effective date of an import ban for swimming crab fisheries in Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka pending the National Marine Fisheries Service's reconsideration of the comparability findings for these fisheries (National Fisheries Institute v. United States, CIT # 25-00223).

The following lawsuit has been filed recently at the Court of International Trade:

Fertilizer exporter OCP on Oct. 27 challenged the International Trade Commission's second remand determination that the U.S. industry is materially injured by phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia, arguing that the ITC relied on the "same facts and reasoning" rejected by the Court of International Trade in its previous decision (OCP S.A. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 21-00219).

Exporters Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry, Jiangsu Keri Wood and Sino-Maple won't participate in the appeal on the 2017 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China despite having participated in the case at the Court of International Trade (Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 26-1050).

CBP erroneously found that importer Superon Schweisstechnik's stainless steel round wires aren't coated in a "flux material" and thus misclassified three types of the wires, Superon argued in an Oct. 30 complaint filed at the Court of International Trade. The importer faulted CBP for using the "conventional test methods" on the wires' coating, "rather than the globally recognized specialized methods necessary for identifying" the type of coating on the wires (Superon Schweisstechnik India v. United States, CIT # 21-00570).

Both the government and a group of seafood importers opposed three conservation groups' attempt to intervene in the seafood importers' case against the National Marine Fisheries Service's comparability findings on 240 fisheries across 46 nations, which will lead to an import ban from the fisheries on Jan. 1, 2026 (National Fisheries Institute v. United States, CIT # 25-00223).

The U.S. sought Rule 37 sanctions Oct. 29 against an importer of steel hangers after he failed to appear for depositions in several civil duty evasion cases. It asked the Court of International Trade for default judgments in all three cases (United States v. Zhe “John” Liu, CIT #s 22-00215, 23-00116, 24-00132).

Importer PGS Distributing's customs case on its wood flooring entries at the Court of International Trade was dismissed on Oct. 28 for lack of prosecution. The case was added to the customs case management calendar and wasn't removed before the expiration of the "applicable period of time of removal." PGS Distributing brought the suit in 2021 to contest CBP's denial of its protest over whether CBP's report of transshipment is related to plywood and not to multilayer wood flooring (see 2110180070). Counsel for the importer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment (PGS Distributing v. United States, CIT # 21-00564).