Importer Triumph Engine Control Systems filed a Sept. 16 consent motion at the Court of International Trade to designate a tariff classification challenge on circuit card assemblies as a test case for four other of its lawsuits. Triumph believes the proper Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading is 9032, while CBP says 8538 is the correct subheading for the assemblies. The other four cases -- CIT #19-00108, 19-00109, 19-00110 and 19-00130 -- deal with "merchandise and legal issues that are substantially identical," to those in the proposed test case, the motion said. The Justice Department consented to the test case motion (Triumph Engine Control Systems, LLC v. United States, CIT #19-00094).
Court of International Trade activity
The Court of International Trade sustained the remand results in two similar antidumping duty cases after the Commerce Department dropped a particular market situation adjustment to the cost of production in the sales-below-cost test. The court issued two opinions on Sept. 17, both in cases brought by steel exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Ltd. which challenged the 2016-17 and 2017-18 administrative reviews of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves had issued a total of three prior remands between the two cases, finding that the PMS adjustment was contrary to law, prompting Commerce to finally drop the adjustment under respectful protest.
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's switch to neutral facts available from adverse facts available in an antidumping duty review due to the agency's failure to provide adequate assistance to a small, first-time respondent. The plaintiff -- Calcutta Seafoods, Bay Seafood and Elque & Co., referred to as the Elque Group -- challenged the final results of the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen warmwater shrimp from India. In the court's first opinion in the case, Judge Gary Katzmann said that the Elque Group gave proper notice of its need for help, which Commerce failed to give. Commerce's move away from AFA will cause Elque Group's dumping margin to fall to 27.66%, from 110.9%.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Court of International Trade granted the Commerce Department's motion to lift a stay and voluntarily remand an antidumping duty challenge to give the agency a chance to consider new information showing inaccuracies in the mandatory respondent's reported sales prices. Pirelli Tyre Co., who received the all-others rate in the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. Commerce said the inaccuracies are based on potential fraud.
The Court of International Trade denied importer Strategic Import Supply's motion for a reconsideration of its case over the proper countervailing duty rate for its tire imports in a Sept. 20 order. Finding that Strategic Import Supply didn't file a timely protest of CBP's decision to liquidate the imports of passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, Judge Stephen Vaden again dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction. Strategic Import Supply sought reconsideration after CBP granted a nearly identical protest to the one subject to Vaden's previous dismissal.
The U.S. and two respondents in an antidumping duty review backed the Commerce Department's decision to drop a particular market situation determination on South Korean steel, in recently filed briefs, arguing the agency relied on what evidence it had after the Court of International Trade ruled against evidence upon which it had originally relied to make the finding (SeAH Steel Co., et al. v. United States, CIT Consol. #19-00086).
The Commerce Department was wrong to exclude sales made by an antidumping review respondent that were further assembled in a third country before being shipped to the U.S., in an AD duty review, plaintiff JA Solar said in its Sept. 15 complaint to the Court of International Trade. Commerce had "copious" amounts of evidence showing that the respondent knew that the final destination of the goods was the U.S., meaning the agency should have included them in the review, the complaint said (JA Solar International Limited, et al. v. United States, CIT #21-00514).
The Court of International Trade sustained the remand results in two similar antidumping cases after the Commerce Department dropped a particular market situation adjustment to the cost of production in the sales-below-cost test. The court issued two opinions on Sept. 17, both in cases brought by steel exporter Saha Thai Steel PIpe Public Co. which challenged the 2016-17 and 2017-18 administrative reviews of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes from Thailand. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves issued three prior remands between the two cases, finding that the PMS adjustment was contrary to law.
The International Trade Commission did not properly consider the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the domestic industry for passenger vehicle and light truck tires in a less than fair value investigation on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, Sumitomo Rubber (Thailand) Co. said in a Sept. 16 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Sumitomo argued that the commission "utterly failed" to consider the entire record showing that the imports did not adversely impact the domestic PVLT tire industry.