The Court of International Trade should not refer to court-annexed mediation a key customs case over whether importer Meyer Corp.'s goods qualify for first-sale treatment, nor should the court retry the issue, the U.S. said in a Dec. 30 motion. Replying to Meyer's bid for a status conference on what to do next in the case, the government said the trade court should reconsider the record before it to find whether Meyer can use the first-sale price for valuing its goods without the consideration of nonmarket economy effects as mandated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Meyer Corporation v. United States, CIT # 13-00154).
Country of origin cases
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The Commerce Department illegally expanded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood from China by "reading ambiguity into the scope language when there is none," plaintiffs Vietnam Finewood, Far East American and Liberty Woods International argued in a Dec. 29 reply brief at the Court of International Trade. The scope language clearly states there is only one category of in-scope product -- hardwood and decorative plywood -- although the U.S. says there are two general types -- hardwood and decorative plywood and certain veneered panels -- though the latter category is "not in the scope language at all," the plaintiffs said (Vietnam Finewood Company Limited v. U.S., CIT Consol. #22-00049).
The Commerce Department illegally ignored its established practice of not reviewing the countervailability of a program in the absence of new information and its "consistent finding" in all past countervailing duty reviews that no benefit was provided from respondent KG Dongbu Steel Co.'s first three debt-equity swaps, Dongbu argued in a Dec. 27 reply brief at the Court of International Trade (KG Dongbu Steel Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00047).
The Court of International Trade incorrectly classified plastic-dipped knit gloves under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 6116 instead of under heading 3926, Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing argued in a Dec. 28 brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Magid Glove & Safety Manufacturing v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #22-1793).
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Dec. 28 dismissed an appeal from Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret and Gulf Coast Express Pipeline over Section 232 exclusion requests. The appellants asked for the case to be dismissed after CBP dropped the Section 232 steel and aluminum duties from the entries at issue (Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-2097).
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The International Trade Commission violated the law by failing to either conduct a changed circumstances review or reconsider its original antidumping neglibility decision in a sunset review, Turkish exporter Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari (Erdemir) argued in a group of three related complaints at the Court of International Trade. After another exporter, Colakoglu Dis Ticaret, was revoked from the AD order following court proceedings, the ITC illegally denied any opportunity for Colakoglu's imports to be excluded from the antidumping duty injury proceeding, Erdemir said (Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari v. U.S. International Trade Commission, CIT #22-00349, #22-00350, #22-00351).
CBP has determined that C.I.S. Investments, doing business as Triangle Metals, evaded antidumping and countervailing duty orders on forged steel fittings from China, according to a Dec. 20 notice. The determination comes at the end of an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, which found that C.I.S. transshipped fittings through Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, did not declare that the merchandise was subject to AD/CVD orders upon entry, and made no cash deposits. CBP will require that for any imports of forged steel fittings from Sri Lanka, Thailand or Indonesia, C.I.S. deposit estimated duties at the time of entry, and CBP will evaluate the continuous bond and will require single transaction bonds as appropriate.
The first decision of the World Trade Organization's multiparty interim appeal arbitration arrangement, or MPIA, was judiciously economical, and also gave more deference to countries' antidumping authorities, trade experts said.