The Court of Justice of the European Union found that Venezuela has standing to challenge restrictions made on it by the Council of the EU, according to a June 22 judgment. The CJEU, which overturned a General Court of the European Union ruling that came to the opposite conclusion, said Venezuela can challenge the financial sanctions in European court because the measures are liable to harm Venezuela's economic interests. The General Court originally found that Venezuela had no standing to bring a complaint because it is not an EU member state and had not shown it was directly affected by the sanctions.
Target's complaint filed in the Court of International Trade challenging the court's ability to order the reliquidation of imports past 90 days after their initial liquidation by CBP “masquerades as a motion” for CIT to relitigate this issue, the Department of Justice said in a June 22 motion to dismiss the case. The court's decision in the underlying case, Home Products International Inc. v. United States, already addressed Target's complaint, so the case should be dismissed for failure to state a claim, DOJ said.
Dominican aluminum extrusion manufacturer Kingtom Aluminio SRL will not be allowed to intervene in a Court of International Trade case in which it is alleged to be involved in a transshipment scheme to avoid antidumping duties, according to a June 21 order. Kingtom did not establish that its interest in continuing to sell aluminum extrusions to the importer plaintiffs without duties is an "interest relating to the property or transaction that is the subject of the action," as required by the court's rules. Kingtom also did not have a claim that shares with the main action -- a challenge of an Enforce and Protect Act" investigation -- a common question of law or fact (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. United States, CIT #21-00198).
The Commerce Department complied with the Court of International Trade's remand instructions in an antidumping case on frozen warmwater shrimp from India by switching from an application of adverse facts available to neutral facts available, the Department of Justice said in June 17 comments on the remand results (Calcutta Seafoods Pvt. Ltd., Bay Seafood Pvt. Ltd. v. U.S., CIT #19-00201). So far, no parties to the case have taken issue with the remand results, though Commerce submitted them “under respectful protest.” DOJ joins defendant-intervenor and petitioner in the case, Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee, in signing off on the remand results (see 2106040074).
The Commerce Department's denial of third country sales data for evasion of antidumping duties in establishing normal value in an antidumping duty case lacks proper evidence, shrimp exporter Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited said in a brief filed June 18 with the Court of International Trade. ZASF said that there was no evidence in the record to back Commerce's reliance on CBP's determination in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation that ZASF's shrimp imports from Vietnam evaded antidumping duties from India (Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited et al v. United States, CIT #21-00031).
Two steel importers, voestalpine USA and Bilstein Cold Rolled Steel, want refunds for Section 232 steel and aluminum duties paid on imports of alloy steel since the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security published a Section 232 exclusion with the wrong Harmonized Tariff Schedule code, they said in a June 18 complaint filed at the Court of International Trade. Voestalpine and Bilstein say the HTS error was only remedied after the imports had been liquidated and that no protest option was available to apply the exclusions after liquidation (voestalpine USA LLC et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00290).
No serious gaps in the record exist proving that plywood producer Shelter Forest did not develop its plywood after the Commerce Department issued antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China, the Department of Justice said in a brief June 16. Contradicting comments on Commerce's remand results from petitioner Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood, DOJ backed Commerce's remand decision to reverse its affirmative determination that Shelter Forest's plywood circumvented the AD/CV duties.
The Customs Rulings Online Search System (CROSS) was updated June 16 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):