The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 13 order granted importer Strato's voluntary dismissal notice without prejudice in its customs case on selective cushioning units. While the U.S. did not serve an answer nor a motion for summary judgment in the case, Strato's counsel discussed with the government's counsel and agreed to voluntarily dismiss the case, the order said (Strato v. United States, CIT # 22-00315).
Country of origin cases
The Commerce Department uses "made-up 'exclusions'" from the scope of certain antidumping and countervailing duty orders that, even if they were "otherwise permitted, which they are not," fail to find support in the authorities the agency relies on, AD petitioner Magnum Magnetics argued in a Feb. 6 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. The petitioner railed against Commerce's refusal to perform a (k)(3) analysis of the scope even though it relied on a single evidential element from a (k)(3) analysis in its (k)(1) analysis (Magnum Magnetics Corp. v. United States, CIT # 22-00254).
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department erred in calculating the non-selected rate in a quartz surface products antidumping duty review, AD petitioner Cambria Co. argued in a Feb. 10 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Cambria seeks to have Commerce return to a simple average rate calculated based on zero and adverse facts available rates in the preliminary results of the review, instead of the 3.19% mark from the final results that was taken from the all-others rate in the original AD investigation (Cambria Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00007).
The Commerce Department failed to explain how its policy of presuming that exporters from non-market economies (NMEs) are controlled by the state and thus deserving of a single NME-wide antidumping rate is rooted in either the statute or Commerce's regulations, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Feb. 9 opinion. Remanding the case over questions on the policy's legal origins for a second time, Judge Richard Eaton also called into question how the NME presumption policy weighs against Commerce's legal obligation to calculate an individual rate for a mandatory respondent using its own data.
Meyer Corp.'s imports of cookware do not qualify for first-sale treatment, the Court of International Trade held in a Feb. 9 opinion. After ruling against Meyer's bid for a retrial in the opinion, Judge Thomas Aquilino said that, because the court doesn't know the extent to which parent company Meyer Holdings had the ability to influence the price paid for the goods sold between affiliates, due to the company's failure to submit its financial information, the use of first sale was not supported.
The Court of International Trade erred by relying on information not presented to the Commerce Department in a scope case, misinterpreting the International Trade Commission's findings in the original injury proceeding and mischaracterizing statements in other ITC cases, appellant Wheatland Tube Co. argued in a Feb. 3 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe's arguments supporting the CIT's analysis "are unpersuasive," since they ignore the plain language of the relevant antidumping duty order, the brief said (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2181).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
Trade Law Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. All articles can be found by searching on the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
The Court of International Trade should dismiss a penalty case against defendant Zhe "John" Liu since the statute of limitations had run out by the time the case was filed, and because the government has not established how Liu was connected to the allegedly fraudulent scheme, Liu argued in a Feb 7 brief at the Court of International Trade (U.S. vs. Zhe "John" Liu, CIT # 22-00215).