Antidumping duty respondent Grupo Simec failed to prove that it would suffer immediate and irreparable harm without an injunction against AD cash deposits, the Court of International Trade held in a Feb. 24 opinion denying the preliminary injunction motion. Judge Stephen Vaden added that Grupo Simec's evidence purportedly showing how it would be harmed without the injunction contained conclusory evidence that, if held to be sufficient to establish harm, would "eviscerate the operation of the antidumping laws."
The Court of International Trade released a trio of opinions Feb. 27, covering customs, import misclassification penalty and antidumping cases.
The Commerce Department is issuing antidumping and countervailing duty orders on sodium nitrite from India (A-533-906/C-533-907). The orders, scheduled for publication in the Federal Register Feb. 27, set permanent antidumping and countervailing duties, which will remain in place unless revoked by Commerce in a sunset or changed circumstances review. Commerce will now begin conducting annual administrative reviews, if requested, to determine final assessments of AD/CVD on importers and make changes to cash deposit rates.
The Court of International Trade in a Feb. 24 opinion denied plaintiff Grupo Simec's bid for a preliminary injunction against cash deposits in an antidumping duty case covering rebar from Mexico. Judge Stephen Vaden said Grupo Simec failed to clear the "high standard" of proving it would suffer irreparable harm absent the injunction because the company failed to show the "immediacy" of the harm it would suffer should it continue to pay cash deposits.
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on stainless steel butt-weld pipe fittings from the Philippines (A-565-801). The agency continued its preliminary finding that the three companies under review -- E N Corp.; Enlin Steel Corp.; and Vinox Corp. (aka Vinoc) -- had no exports of subject merchandise to the U.S. during the period under review. As such, Commerce made no changes to cash deposit rates already in effect for the companies. Subject merchandise from E N, Enlin and Vinox will continue to enter at AD rates set in the most recent previous review, and any entries filed with their case numbers entered Feb. 1, 2021, through Jan. 31, 2022, will be liquidated at the all-others rate, currently 33.81%.
The Commerce Department has released the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on frozen warmwater shrimp from China (A-570-893). These final results will be used to set final assessments of AD duties on importers for subject merchandise entered Feb. 1, 2021, through Jan. 31, 2022.
Amid the “national commitment to the free expression of speech,” even where that speech is “offensive or repugnant,” U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter for Southern New York, in a Feb. 14 opinion and order (docket 1:22-cv-10195), granted the motion of three online platform operators for a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of New York’s new Hateful Conduct Law. Carter said the law “chills the constitutionally protected speech of social media users, without articulating a compelling governmental interest or ensuring that the law is narrowly tailored to that goal,” said his opinion. The law requires that social media networks install a mechanism for users to file complaints about allegedly hateful conduct and disclose policies for how they will respond to any such complaints. The plaintiffs’ Dec. 6 motion for preliminary judgment said they have a well-founded fear that the law will be enforced against their online platforms, and they're likely to prevail on the merits because the law burdens and compels speech, is overbroad and void for vagueness, and is preempted by the Communications Decency Act. The First Amendment protects individuals' right to engage in hate speech, “and the state cannot try to inhibit that right, no matter how unseemly or offensive that speech may be to the general public or the state,” said Carter’s order. “This could have a profound chilling effect on social media users and their protected freedom of expression.” He denied their CDA claims, saying the law doesn’t impose liability on social media networks for failing to respond to an incident of hateful conduct, nor does it impose liability on the network for its users’ own hateful conduct. The law doesn’t impose liability on the plaintiffs as publishers in “contravention” of the CDA, said Carter.
California’s age-appropriate social media design law (AB-2273) “is the most extensive attempt by any state to censor speech since the birth of the internet,” said NetChoice’s motion Friday (docket 5:22-cv-08861) for a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose to invalidate the statute. California’s response to the motion, which had been expected (see 2301310034), is due April 21. NetChoice’s reply brief is due May 19.
The Commerce Department has recognized a Chinese company's name change for the purposes of antidumping duties on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof, finished and unfinished from China (A-570-601). The agency upheld its preliminary finding (see 2212300038) that Stemco Vehicle Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. is the successor-in-interest to GGB Bearing Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., in the final results of a changed circumstances review set to be published Feb. 22. The agency found Stemco operates as the same business entity other than the change in name. Commerce determined that Stemco will be assigned the AD duty rate previously assigned to GGB, 7.04%. The new cash deposit rate will be effective Feb. 22 and remain in effect until further notice.
The Commerce Department illegally reversed its initial decision that lemon juice exporter Louis Dreyfus Co. was not affiliated with its primary fresh lemon supplier on the grounds that the company had no close supplier relationship with the lemon grower, U.S. company Ventura Coastal argued in a Feb. 16 complaint at the Court of International Trade. In the complaint, Ventura also railed against Commerce's decision to exclude certain administrative expenses pertaining to services provided by Louis Dreyfus' parent company or affiliated holding companies from the exporter's general and administrative expense rate calculation (Ventura Coastal v. United States, CIT # 23-00009).