The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Aug. 20 deconsolidated two appeals on the countervailing duty investigation on Russian phosphate fertilizers, dismissing one brought by exporters Phosagro PJSC and JSC Apatit for failure to prosecute. Exporter Industrial Group Phosphorite brought the other appeal, claiming that the Commerce Department contradicted the countervailing duty statute in finding that the Russian government's provision of natural gas was de facto specific (see 2408080058) (The Mosaic Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #'s 24-1593, -1595).
Countervailing duty petitioner The Mosaic Co. and respondent OCP each moved the Court of International Trade for judgment last week in a combined suit on the first review of the CVD order on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco (The Mosaic Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00246).
Russian exporter Industrial Group Phosphorite told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that the Commerce Department contradicted the countervailing duty statute in finding that the Russian government's provision of natural gas was de facto specific. Filing a reply brief on Aug. 7, the exporter said Commerce can't find that the agrochemical industry is the "predominant user of natural gas" by only comparing its usage among a subset of natural gas users as opposed to all natural gas users (The Mosaic Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1593).
EPA has published in the Federal Register its previously announced proposed rule on restricting the commercial use of solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP) (see 2408010002), setting Sept. 23 as the deadline for general comments, and Sept. 9 for comments on associated information collection requirements.
DHS has added five more entries to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, bringing the total up to 73 entities flagged by U.S. officials for allegedly using forced labor by Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic minority groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
EPA is proposing to ban consumer use, as well as restrict commercial and industrial use, of the solvent 1-bromopropane (1-BP), which the federal agency says can cause cancer and damage to the liver, kidneys and the nervous system and lead to reduced fertility.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated June 28 - July 21 with the following headquarters rulings (ruling revocations and modifications will be detailed elsewhere in a separate article as they are announced in the Customs Bulletin):
International Trade Today is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case they were missed. All articles can be found by searching on the titles or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Hyshield brand plant fertilizer produced by British Columbia-based Sipco Innovations ultimately should have China as its country of origin for marking purposes. However, the country of origin for the Hyshield product is Canada for Section 301 purposes, and it qualifies for preferential tariff treatment under USMCA, according to a May 8 ruling addressed to CBP’s Pharmaceuticals, Health and Chemicals Center of Excellence and Expertise in Newark, New Jersey, and recently released by CBP.
The Commerce Department is setting new countervailing duty cash deposit requirements for imports of melamine from Germany, India, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago (C-428-853, C-533-925, C-518-002, C-274-811), after finding countervailable subsidization of producers and exporters in the four countries in the preliminary determinations of its CVD investigations. Suspension of liquidation and cash deposit requirements will generally take effect for entries on or after July 22, the date that the preliminary determinations are set to be published in the Federal Register, but Commerce is making the suspension of liquidation and CVD cash deposits retroactive to approximately April 21 for Indian companies.