Lawyers for LG Electronics' bid to overturn the International Trade Commission's restrictions on their participation in a solar safeguard review should be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, the ITC argued in an Oct. 4 motion to dismiss at the Court of International Trade. Even if CIT had jurisdiction, the case is premature since there has been no "justiciable final agency action," the brief said.
Court of International Trade activity
The Court of International Trade on Oct. 6 stuck down a Commerce Department scope ruling that found dual-stenciled pipe is covered by the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand, remanding the ruling back to Commerce for further consideration. The plaintiff, Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company, argued that Commerce ignored overwhelming evidence that dual-stenciled line pipe was intentionally excluded from the ITC's injury determination underlying the AD order. Judge Stephen Vaden found that no Thai manufacturer made dual-stenciled pipe imported as line pipe at the time of the AD order, so it couldn't have been included in the scope of the order.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Oct. 6 on AD/CV duty proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's finding that Al Ghurair Iron & Steel (AGIS) circumvented the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) from China via the United Arab Emirates, in a Sept. 24 ruling made public on Oct. 4.
The Court of International Trade sustained the International Trade Commission's finding that imports of fabricated structural steel (FSS) from Canada, Chile and Mexico did not harm the domestic industry, in a Sept. 22 opinion made public on Oct. 5.
Moroccan exporter OCP S.A. was granted an indefinite injunction against the liquidation of its phosphate fertilizers, in an Oct. 4 order from the Court of International Trade. After scrapping with the Department of Justice over the end date of the injunction, OCP eventually won out after proving that it was likely to suffer irreparable harm stemming from the automatic liquidation of the entries that could occur starting at the top of next year.
The Court of International Trade granted an indefinite injunction against the liquidation of Moroccan exporter OCP S.A.'s phosphate fertilizers in an Oct. 4 order. The key issue before the court over the injunction was its length. The U.S., while agreeing to the injunction in principle, thought the injunction should only run to the end of the first administrative review of the countervailing duty order on the fertilizers -- a review that had yet to commence. OCP pushed for an indefinite injunction against liquidation. The court sided with OCP, finding that the exporter has sufficiently showed that it will suffer irreparable harm if the court enters an injunction that doesn't extend to entries affected by this litigation and occurring after the end of the 2021 calendar year -- the date at which automatic liquidation would begin.
The Commerce Department properly hit antidumping respondent Hyundai Electric & Energy Systems Co. with adverse facts available for its failure to produce information on its cost shifting practice, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said in an Oct. 4 opinion. Upholding a decision of the Court of International Trade, a three-judge panel at the appellate court agreed that Commerce's decision to cancel verification of Hyundai's information was properly supported.
The government stands by its arguments that the lists 3 and 4A Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods are “presidential actions” that are “unreviewable” by the court, the Department of Justice said in a late filing on Oct. 1 at the Court of International Trade (In Re Section 301 Cases, CIT #21-00052).