A recently concluded case at the Court of International Trade was a serious contest between the power of the court and the finality of liquidation, customs lawyer Larry Friedman of Barnes Richardson said in an Aug. 2 blog post. The case at issue was Target v. U.S., in which Target attempted to reverse a reliquidation order on improperly liquidated ironing tables from China (see 2108160028). Reversing the order would "elevate the principle of finality" of liquidation over the power of the trade court, Judge Leo Gordon said in his July opinion (see 2307200049).
The Court of International Trade erred when it signed off on the Commerce Department's refusal to conduct a full administrative review of and apply adverse facts available to exporter Jin Tiong Electrical Materials Manufacturer despite issuing a questionnaire, importer Repwire and Jin Tiong said in an Aug. 3 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Repwire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1933).
Andrew Adams, the DOJ attorney at the head of Task Force KleptoCapture -- the interagency body charged with enforcing U.S. sanctions on Russia -- left the department, he said on his LinkedIn page. Adams will return to his role as assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which he originally assumed in 2013. He was appointed to lead the task force in March of last year after leading the SDNY Attorney's Office's Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Bloomberg reported that Adams will be replaced by Michael Khoo and David Lim, both of whom have worked in the task force since its early days. DOJ didn't comment.
No explanation could make the Commerce Department's use of the Cohen's d test, used to root out "masked" dumping, reasonable, the Canadian government and eight Canadian exporters argued in a proposed amicus brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Seeking to tack their arguments onto the case in which the appellate court originally questioned the agency's use of the test, the amici said that Commerce is not using the d test "in any coherent sense" (Stupp Corp. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1663).
The following are short summaries of recent CBP NY rulings issued by the agency's National Commodity Specialist Division in New York:
The U.S. asked for more time to file its reply to importer PrimeSource's writ of certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court in its case challenging President Donald Trump's expansion of Section 232 steel and aluminum duties onto "derivative" products. The government asked for another month, until Sept. 25, to complete its brief, explaining its response was delayed due to the "heavy press of earlier assigned cases to the attorneys handling this matter." The brief is due Aug. 24.
The Court of International Trade should toss a case from Turkish exporter Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari (Erdemir) challenging the International Trade Commission's decision not to reconsider its injury finding on hot-rolled steel from Turkey for lack of jurisdiction, four U.S. steel companies said. Filing a motion to dismiss at the trade court on July 31, Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor Corp., Steel Dynamics and SSAB Enterprises argued that Section 1581(i), the court's "residual" jurisdiction, is not the proper jurisdiction for the case since Erdemir could have sought relief under Section 1581(c) (Eregli Demir ve Celik Fabrikalari v. U.S. International Trade Commission, CIT # 22-00349).
CBP determined that importer Zinus US evaded an antidumping duty order covering wooden bedroom furniture from China by making "material false statements or omissions," it said in a notice released July 28. The agency said there was "substantial evidence" showing Zinus imported Chinese-origin furniture by using general product descriptions and misclassifying the furniture as non-covered merchandise.
The Court of International Trade should sustain the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty investigation on utility scale wind towers from Spain, DOJ said July 31, arguing that respondent Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) failed to show that it shouldn't be subject to an AFA rate (Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy v. U.S., CIT # 21-00449).
A sunset review of an antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Turkey doesn't render a request for a changed circumstances review meaningless, Turkish exporter Ereğli Demir ve Çelik Fabrikalari (Erdemir) said in a July 28 brief opposing motions to dismiss at the Court of International Trade (Ereğli Demir ve Çelik Fabrikalari v. U.S. International Trade Commission, CIT # 22-00350).