The Court of International Trade on Oct. 20 denied importer Detroit Axle's motion to lift the stay of its case contesting President Donald Trump's decision to end the de minimis threshold for goods from China. In a text-only order, the trade court said the company's motion for partial summary judgment is stayed pending resolution of V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, the lead case on whether Trump can use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs, which is currently being briefed before the Supreme Court (Axle of Dearborn d/b/a Detroit Axle v. United States, CIT # 25-00091).

The Supreme Court on Oct. 23 expanded the time for oral argument in the lead cases on the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, giving each side 40 minutes to make their cases. However, the court said the parties challenging the tariffs, which are two groups of importers and one group of 12 U.S. states, shall split their time evenly between the private parties and the U.S. states (Donald J. Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, U.S. 25-250) (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, U.S. 24-1287).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 22 denied the government's motion to stay judicial proceedings in a lawsuit from various seafood importers against the National Marine Fisheries Service's comparability findings of 240 fisheries across 46 nations. While the U.S. said the case should be stayed due to the federal government shutdown, Judge Joseph Laroski said the government's concerns regarding the shutdown, "while substantial, do not outweigh the urgency of judicial review" in this case due to the harm alleged by the importers (National Fisheries Institute v. United States, CIT # 25-00223).

The Commerce Department didn't properly support its decision to base antidumping duty respondent Toyo Kohan's date of sale for the company's U.S. sales on its shipment date in the 2022-23 review of the AD order on diffusion-annealed, nickel-plated flat-rolled steel products from Japan, the Court of International Trade held in a decision issued Oct. 23.

Antidumping duty petitioner Domtar dropped its case at the Court of International Trade on the 2022-23 administrative review of the AD order on thermal paper from Germany. Domtar filed a notice of dismissal on Oct. 21, which the court granted the same day. Counsel for Domtar didn't immediately respond to a request for comment (Domtar v. United States, CIT # 25-00213).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 23 remanded the Commerce Department's use of antidumping respondent Toyo Kohan's shipment date as its date of sale for the company's U.S. sales in the 2022-23 review of the AD order on diffusion-annealed, nickel-plated flat-rolled steel products from Japan. Judge Jane Restani said Commerce's use of Toyo Kohan's shipment date lacked a "reasoned explanation" and wasn't supported by the record, since the billing documentation at the time of shipping is "virtually meaningless" because it doesn't necessarily show the "quantity or price in the purchase order or the final invoice." The judge said Commerce should consider the role an "agreed-to pricing formula" may play in its date of sale analysis, since where such a formula is present, "there may be a disconnect in the record data" for the date of sale and the sale price.

The Commerce Department reasonably decided to include two types of products made by antidumping duty respondent BGH Edelstahl Siegen in its calculation of BGH's home market sales, the Court of International Trade held on Oct. 22. Judge Mark Barnett said the respondent's attempt to remove these two products from the normal value calculation failed, since it necessarily required the addition of an end-use requirement in the scope of the AD order on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany.

No lawsuits have been filed recently at the Court of International Trade.

Exporter Kumho Tire (Vietnam) will appeal the Court of International Trade's decision sustaining the Commerce Department's decision to countervail Vietnamese currency undervaluation, according to an Oct. 21 notice of appeal. In August, the trade court upheld Commerce's finding that the currency undervaluation program was specific to the traded goods sector and thus countervailable in the countervailing duty investigation on passenger vehicle and light truck tires (see 2508220052). In an earlier decision, Judge Timothy Reif held that the agency had the authority to countervail currency undervaluation programs (see 2410280035). Kumho Tire now will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Kumho Tire (Vietnam) v. United States, CIT # 21-00397).

The Court of International Trade on Oct. 21 granted the government's motion for default judgment against importer E-Dong, U.S.A. for negligently failing to pay a federal excise tax on 20 entries of its "Korean distilled beverage soju." Judge Timothy Reif ordered E-Dong to pay $234,748.30 in unpaid federal excise tax along with pre- and post-judgment interest, which shall be calculated according to the relevant statutes.