The Commerce Department will suspend liquidation and require antidumping and countervailing duty cash deposits on various types of pipes and tubes made in Vietnam from hot-rolled steel produced in China, India, South Korea and Taiwan, after preliminarily finding the goods are circumventing AD/CVD orders on a variety of pipe and tube products from the four countries.
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on magnesium metal from China (A-570-896). Commerce continued to find that both companies under review -- Tianjin Magnesium International, Co., Ltd. (TMI) and Tianjin Magnesium Metal Co., Ltd. (TMM) -- had no shipments of subject merchandise to the U.S. during the period of review. As such, AD cash deposit rates for these two companies will remain at the rates set for each company in the most recently completed proceeding (i.e., the original final determination or a prior administrative review).
A federal judge again refused to pause California’s move to a connections-based contribution method for state USF. T-Mobile and subsidiaries pressed the U.S. District Court of Northern California Friday to apply a stay while they appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the district court’s previous denial of preliminary injunction (see 2304070043). Ruling Sunday, Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler denied T-Mobile a stay of the California Public Utilities Commission rule. Beeler also denied T-Mobile’s alternative request for an administrative stay until the 9th Circuit decides the stay issue. “The court denies the motion for the reasons it denied a preliminary injunction,” the judge wrote in case 3:23-cv-00483. The CPUC’s rule is different but not inconsistent with FCC rules, she said. “The plaintiffs did not show a likelihood of success on the merits or serious questions going to the merits, and the balance of equities and the public interest in any event did not tip in their favor.” T-Mobile, late Monday, filed an emergency motion for stay or injunction pending appeal at the 9th Circuit. Since the CPUC order took effect April 1, appellants “are already suffering ongoing, irreparable harms” and request an immediate administrative stay while the court decides Monday’s motion, upon which it wants a ruling by May 1, the carrier said. Without relief, appellants will suffer “financial losses … of nearly $11 million per month, loss of business and customer goodwill, and reputational harm.”
The Commerce Department has released the final results of its countervailing duty administrative review on cold-rolled steel flat products from South Korea (C-580-882). These final results will be used to set final assessments of CV duties on importers for subject merchandise entered Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2020.
U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman for Northern California in San Jose signed an order Thursday (docket 5:22-cv-08861) continuing until Dec. 7 from April 13 the initial case management conference in NetChoice’s lawsuit for a preliminary injunction to block California’s age-appropriate social media design law, AB-2273, from taking effect in July 2024. NetChoice and California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked in an April 3 joint stipulation that the conference be postponed until at least 30 days after the court issues a decision on NetChoice’s injunction motion and the opportunity for appeal was exhausted (see 2304040001). The judge opted to continue the conference to Dec. 7 rather than doing so indefinitely, but she will grant “further joint requests for continuance” as necessary, said her order.
California’s shift to a connections-based USF contribution shouldn’t stop the U.S. District Court of Northern California from applying a stay while T-Mobile appeals to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, T-Mobile and subsidiaries said Friday (docket 3:23-cv-00483).The commission's state USF order took effect April 1. Courts can grant stays of preliminary injunction denials "even where the court continues to believe its prior ruling rejecting the movant’s arguments was correct,” T-Mobile said. Thursday, the CPUC opposed the carrier’s motion to stay the court’s March 31 order denying preliminary injunction (see 2304060048). The CPUC "ignores crucial issues of law and fact and concocts speculative and implausible theories of harm for the first time in this case,” T-Mobile wrote Friday. "At a minimum, an administrative stay is warranted to afford the Ninth Circuit sufficient time to consider a stay motion before additional, ongoing, and irreparable harms are inflicted upon Plaintiffs.” The CPUC claims reverting to a revenue-based method will cost the agency time and resources, but it fails to estimate how much, the carrier added.
The U.S. will not participate in the appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit over whether the Court of International Trade improperly granted an injunction against antidumping duty cash deposits on steel nails from Oman. The government sent a letter to the appellate court telling it that it didn't file a notice of appeal in the case, so it will not be filing a brief nor participating in any oral argument (Oman Fasteners v. United States, Fed Cir. # 23-1661).
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register April 7 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 has published the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on difluoromethane (R-32) from China (A-570-121). Commerce calculated an AD rate of 160.65% for Taizhou Qingsong Refrigerant New Material Co., Ltd. and its affiliate Taizhou Qingsong Refrigerant New Material Co., Ltd. If the agency's finding is continued in the final results, importers of subject merchandise from Taizhou Qingsong entered Aug. 27, 2020, through Feb. 28, 2022, will be assessed antidumping duties at importer-specific rates. A new 160.65% AD cash deposit rate would take effect upon publication of the final results in the Federal Register.
The Commerce Department published the final results of the antidumping and countervailing duty administrative reviews on steel racks from China (A-570-088/C-570-089). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD for subject merchandise for the companies under review entered Sept. 1, 2020, through Aug. 30, 2021, and CVD for entries Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2020.