The Commerce Department abused its discretion by denying an exporter’s supplemental questionnaire extension request amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s 2021 delta variant wave, Court of International Trade Judge Stephen Vaden ruled April 25. He pointed out that, by the time of the rejection, three of Simec’s key accountants had died of the disease and a fourth was "hospitalized and intubated."
If the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative decides that China's subsidies to its shipbuilding industry burden U.S. commerce through a range of unreasonable or discriminatory acts, a coalition of unions suggests it impose a fee on Chinese ships arriving at U.S. ports (see 2404170029). During a Washington International Trade Association webinar on the new Section 301 investigation, former USTR associate general counsel David Ross said China's subsidies are evident but the remedy is not.
U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar for Northern California in Oakland denied without prejudice the motion of nine former Twitter employees to compel their claims against Twitter and X to arbitration and for preliminary injunctive relief, said his signed order Monday (docket 4:23-cv-03301). The court finds merit to Twitter’s argument in opposition to the motion to compel arbitration, that the court shouldn’t rule on the motion until after class certification has been decided, said the order. The parties will meet and confer on a case schedule, including a briefing schedule for the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification, due within 14 days, it said. The plaintiffs alternatively may elect to dismiss the class claims and proceed only on behalf of the named plaintiffs, it said. Assuming they intend to move for class certification, the court “would be amenable to hearing that motion and a motion to compel arbitration on the same date,” it said. The court would also be amenable “to having the parties submit the motion to compel arbitration on the papers already submitted in lieu of filing new briefing,” it said.
Suspension of liquidation and countervailing duty cash deposit requirements won't take effect until further notice for Sociedad Nacional de Galapagos C.A., Naturisa S.A., Holding Sola & Sola Solacciones S.A., and Empacadora Champmar S.A., the Commerce Department said in a notice released April 24 amending its preliminary determination in its CVD investigation on frozen warmwater shrimp from Ecuador (C-331-806). The agency also is amending the all-others rate for Ecuador it set in the April 1 preliminary determination (see 2403290027).
The Commerce Department issued a notice in the Federal Register on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on ferrosilicon from Brazil (A-351-860/C-351-861), Kazakhstan (A-834-812/C-834/813), Malaysia (A-557-828/C-557-829) and Russia (A-821-838/C-821-839). The CVD investigations and the AD investigations on Brazil, Kazakhstan and Malaysia cover entries for the calendar year 2023. The AD investigation on Russia covers entries made July 1, 2023, through Dec. 31, 2023.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register April 22 on the following AD/CV duty proceedings (any notices that announce changes to AD/CV duty rates, scope, affected firms or effective dates will be detailed in another ITT article):
The Commerce Department issued its final determination in its countervailing duty investigation on brass rod from South Korea (C-580-917). Suspension of liquidation is currently not in effect for entries on or after Jan. 27, 2024, and Commerce will only require cash deposits of estimated CVD on future entries if it issues a CVD order.
The Commerce Department issued its final determinations in the antidumping duty investigations on brass rod from Brazil (A-351-859), India (A-533-915), Mexico (A-201-858), South Korea (A-580-916) and South Africa (A-791-828). Changes to cash deposit requirements set in these final determinations take effect April 22, the date they were published in the Federal Register.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 22 on AD/CVD proceedings:
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted on CBP's website April 19, along with the case number(s) and CBP message number, is provided below. The messages are available by searching for the listed CBP message number at CBP's ADCVD Search page.