The Commerce Department is working with a police agency in rural Texas to help investigate illegally exported goods, an unorthodox relationship that has sparked concern among industry lawyers and led to disputed seizures.
The European Union General Court annulled the sanctions listing of Sayed Shamsuddin Borborudi, the former deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, in a June 9 judgment. Borborudi was originally listed under the EU's Iranian nuclear sanctions regime for his position with AEOI and his work with Iran's nuclear program since 2002. The general court said he stopped working for AEOI in 2013, and the European Council failed to show evidence of his continued involvement in Iran's nuclear program. His prior work did not justify a continued listing, the court said.
Coinciding with an increased use of CBP's Enforce and Protect Act process for investigating possible antidumping and/or countervailing duty evasion is a feeling among importers that EAPA action is largely skewed toward the alleger. “Typically, the first notice the importer receives is after the agency has already accepted the allegation and imposed draconian ‘Interim Measures’ that treat the importers’ goods as subject to anti-dumping and countervailing duties, a process" that "has proven to be massively unjust,” Mary Hodgins, a lawyer at Morris Manning, said by email. The process is facing increased scrutiny, with several lawsuits that raise due process questions making their way through the courts.
Chinese exporter Changzhou Trina Solar Energy's case was severed from a consolidated action in the Court of International Trade because the other plaintiffs are appealing the trade court's decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a June 9 order said. Trina originally filed its lawsuit in CIT to challenge the final results of the fourth administrative review of the countervailing duty order on crystaline silicon photovoltaic cells from China. As a result of the CIT decision, Trina's total CVD rate dropped from 9.12% to 2.93%. CIT also ordered entries related to Trina's case liquidated (Canadian Solar Inc. et al v. United States, CIT Consol. #18-00184).
Antidumping duty China-wide rates can still be based on adverse facts available (AFA) even if no members of the countrywide entity were found to be uncooperative in an administrative review, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in a June 10 decision reversing a decision to the contrary from the Court of International Trade.
Steel rebar importer Power Steel Co. paid Section 232 duties on its imports, and those payments were eligible to be deducted from its U.S. price in an antidumping case, the Department of Justice argued in a June 9 brief in the Court of International Trade (Power Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-03771).
Insulated staples imported by Stanley Black & Decker are not subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on collated steel staples from China (A-570-112/C-570-113), the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling issued June 8. As in a previous scope ruling on Chinese staples, the agency found Stanley’s insulated staples are collated in a manner different from that set out in the original AD duty petition.
An importer’s lawsuit claiming it should have been assessed AD duties at a lower import-specific antidumping duty rate has run into jurisdictional issues, and a recently filed amended complaint from the importer that was accepted by the Court of International Trade on June 9 aims to clear them up.