The Commerce Department released the final results of its countervailing duty administrative review on forged steel fittings from China (C-570-068). The agency calculated new CVD cash deposit rates for the Chinese producers and exporters listed below. These final results will be used to set final assessments of CVD on importers for entries during calendar year 2020.
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on monosodium glutamate from Indonesia (A-560-826). These final results, reflecting a calculation change that lowered the rate for one company from that in the preliminary results, will be used to set final assessments of AD duties on importers for subject merchandise from two companies under review entered Nov. 1, 2020, through Oct. 31, 2021.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 7 on AD/CVD proceedings:
U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty deferred (docket 3:22-cv-01213) a ruling on a motion to consolidate (docket 3:23-cv-00381) filed Tuesday by plaintiffs Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children’s Defense and Connie Sampognaro (see 2304050007) until a resolution has been rendered on the pending motion for preliminary injunction in Missouri et al. v. Biden et al. in U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana in Monroe. The court is also waiting for resolution on a pending motion for leave to amend complaint to add class allegations and for class certification. Missouri v. Biden centers on allegations of “government censorship of free speech by means of coercion and/or significant encouragement toward social-media platforms,” said Doughty, a Donald Trump appointee. Kennedy v. Biden is a “First Amendment challenge to the massive, systematic efforts by the federal government to induce social media companies to censor constitutionally protected speech,” said plaintiffs’ Saturday notice of motion for consolidation. Kennedy filed to run for president as a Democrat Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission. “Due to the current procedural status of this case and the voluminous filings already made in relation to the pending motions, the Court finds that it would not be appropriate at this time to consolidate these matters,” Doughty said, noting the two pending motions before the court are still not fully briefed. The court agrees with defendants that allowing the Kennedy plaintiffs to submit a separate motion for preliminary injunction, consolidation of that motion with the Missouri Plaintiffs’ motion, and submission by the Kennedy plaintiffs of a motion for certification of their putative class prior to the court hearing the Missouri plaintiffs’ outstanding motions would place a “substantial burden on both the court and defendants.”
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on strontium chromate from Austria (A-433-813). Commerce set an AD rate of zero percent for Habich GmbH, the only company under review. Commerce won't assess AD duties on subject merchandise from Habich entered Nov. 1, 2020, through Oct. 31, 2021. The new zero AD duty cash deposit rate for Habich takes effect April 10, the date of publication of these final results in the Federal Register.
The U.S. District Court for Northern California shouldn’t stay its March 31 order denying preliminary injunction to T-Mobile in a state USF case, the California Public Utilities Commission said in its opposition Thursday (docket 3:23-cv-00483). After the court declined to stop the CPUC’s change to a connections-based contribution method, the carrier asked the district court for a stay pending its appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2304050009). T-Mobile and subsidiaries "present nothing new" in their motion to stay the court's March 31 order, said the CPUC. They “failed to show any flaw in the Court’s decision -- much less a basis for the extraordinary relief of a stay,” the agency said. "That they disagree with the Court’s conclusion is of no moment and does not amount to probable success or a substantial question on the merits.” T-Mobile hasn’t “come close” to showing “likely and actual irreparable harm during the pendency of appeal,” the CPUC added. But "reverting to the previous revenue-based surcharge would confuse consumers and the other telecommunications carriers that have been working to implement the new surcharge, and it would cost the Commission and those other carriers considerable time and resources.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected antidumping duty petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire's motion to expedite briefing in an appeal of a Court of International Trade decision to grant an injunction against AD cash deposits. Judge Kara Stoll said that Mid Continent can continue to self-expedite its own briefs, but that it "has not made a sufficient showing to shorten the time for" exporter and appellee Oman Fasteners (Oman Fasteners v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1661).
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's website April 6, 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.
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register April 6 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 Philippines notified the World Trade Organization on April 4 that it began a preliminary safeguard investigation on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders. The investigation was initiated after a request by the country’s LPG steel cylinder industry, which said increased imports of the cylinders “cause serious injury to the domestic industry,” including “declining market share, production, sales, capacity utilization, employment profitability, incurred losses, and existence of price depression and price undercutting.” Interested parties can comment on the investigation by making submissions to the Bureau of Import Services via bis_irmd@dti.gov.ph within five days of April 4.