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).
Court of International Trade activity
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 following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Three former U.S. intelligence community or military members -- Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke -- entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay more than $1.68 million to resolve export control violation charges, the Department of Justice said. The trio worked as senior managers at a United Arab Emirates-based company that carried out computer hacking operations to benefit the UAE government during 2016 to 2019, DOJ said. All three were told repeatedly that their work constituted a “defense service” under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, requiring a license from the State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Nevertheless, all three continued their hacking without a license, court documents laid out.
The Court of International Trade granted the Department of Justice's motion for extension of the time of service in a penalty action against Kevin Ho, the owner and director of importer Atria, in a Sept. 14 order. After being briefed by both Ho and DOJ, Judge Timothy Reif also decided not to quash service even though the U.S. served Ho's counsel with the wrong summons and complaint (United States v. Chu-Chiang “Kevin” Ho, et al., CIT #19-00038).
The Court of International Trade on Sept. 14 struck down two Commerce Department scope rulings that found door thresholds are not finished products and therefore within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that Commerce's contention that the door thresholds from Worldwide Door Components and Columbia Aluminum Products were not finished products is contradicted by record evidence, remanding the rulings to the agency for reconsideration.
The Court of International Trade sustained the Commerce Department's final results of the third administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from Taiwan, in a Sept. 14 opinion. Chief Judge Mark Barnett found that Commerce's use of mandatory respondent Unicatch Industrial Co.'s above-cost home market sales to calculate normal value was legal, the agency's decision to not include Unicatch's antidumping duty deposits in the company's freight revenues was proper, and that Commerce's move to increase Unicatch's cost of production to account for purchases from an affiliated supplier at less than market value was appropriate.
CBP recently updated its frequently asked questions about the withhold release order aimed at silica-based products from China that made a first mention of de minimis considerations (see 2108030026). CBP's revised response to a question about whether finished products containing a small percentage of silica-based products subject to the WRO now says the agency “recognizes there may be some very fact-specific instances, where the question of the contribution of prohibited labor to the whole of a product (from a quantitative and a qualitative perspective) is something that a court might consider with respect to the statutory intent of Section 1307 of Title 19, United States Code.” The updated version also removes any mention of the phrase “de minimis” and an example of a de minimis contribution.
The Court of International Trade sustained the final results of an antidumping review on steel nails from Taiwan in a Sept. 14 opinion. Chief Judge Mark Barnett also denied respondent Romp Coil Nails Industries' motion for a preliminary injunction pending the results of a related appeal in a different case. Barnett said that the Commerce Department's decision to use home market sales as the basis for normal value is in line with the law, and sustained Commerce's use of mandatory respondent Unicatch Industrial Co.'s above-cost sales to compute the constructed value profit.
The Commerce Department's decision to continue applying adverse facts available due to the Chinese government's alleged shortcoming in its questionnaire responses during a countervailing duty investigation runs contrary to a court order from the Court of International Trade, plaintiff Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. said in a Sept. 13 filing. Commerce held that AFA was warranted, in part, because the Chinese government did not fully answer its questions on subsidy programs for synthetic yarn and caustic soda. The court ruled to the contrary, making the continued use of AFA in Commerce's remand results unsupported and contrary to law, the brief said (Yama Ribbons and Bows Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #19-00047).