The Office of Foreign Assets Control last week issued preliminary guidance on the implementation of the price cap for Russian-origin petroleum products, outlining how it will apply restrictions to articles defined by Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. heading 2710. The price cap will work in a similar manner to the crude oil cap, where participating countries will ban "a broad range" of maritime transport services if they support shipping Russian petroleum products over a predetermined cap.
The Commerce Department has issued the preliminary results of its antidumping duty administrative review on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam (A-552-802). The agency had no mandatory respondents to review, after all companies eligible for individual examination withdrew from the review. There are 100 companies remaining in the review, after some requests for review were withdrawn. Commerce has preliminarily determined that 96 of the companies under review are part of the Vietnam-wide entity, and are subject to the Vietnam-wide entity rate of 25.76%.
The Commerce Department looks set to recognize a Chinese company’s name change for the purposes of antidumping duties on tapered roller bearings and parts thereof, finished and unfinished (TRBs) from China (A-570-601), finding Stemco Vehicle Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. to be the successor-in-interest to GGB Bearing Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. in the preliminary results of a changed circumstances review. The agency preliminarily found Stemco continues to operate with the same corporate structure and manufacturing facilities. If Commerce confirms its finding in the final results, Stemco will inherit the AD rate assigned to GGB in the most recently completed administrative review on tapered roller bearings from China. The rate was 7.04% in the 2019 review (see 1902250021), and GBB had a request for review withdrawn for the review covering entries June 1, 2020, through May 31, 2021, which is currently awaiting final results (see 2207080036).
The Court of International Trade should reject a motion for a preliminary injunction against cash deposits in an antidumping duty case since the plaintiffs "provide no probative evidence" for the accuracy of the claims in the declarations submitted in support for the claim of irreparable harm, the U.S. argued in a Dec. 28 reply brief. Further, the plaintiffs overstate their case on the merits and overlook parts of the record that cut against its position, the government said (Grupo Acerero v. United States, CIT Consol. #22-00202).
A busy communications litigation calendar is set for early 2023, highlighted by Jan. 12 oral argument in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is trying to reverse a preliminary injunction that bars her from enforcing the state’s Affordable Broadband Act (ABA) over the objections of the New York State Telecommunications Association, CTIA and other trade groups (docket 21-1975).
The Commerce Department violated the law by changing the date of sale for antidumping respondent Octal's U.S. sales from the dates reported by the exporter, the company argued in a Dec. 29 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Commerce should have used the date when the relevant price index was published, as reported by the respondent, rather than the invoice date for the date of sale. The result of the switch was a 3.96% dumping margin for the exporter (Octal v. U.S., CIT # 22-00352).
The Commerce Department published notices in the Federal Register Dec. 29 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 and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Dec. 28 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 28 granted exporter Oman Fasteners' motion to expedite briefing on its bid for a preliminary injunction in an antidumping duty case, after the company said the "punitive" duties would put it out of business. Judge Miller Baker was assigned to the case and quickly agreed to the ramped-up briefing schedule, ordering the government to file a reply to the PI motion by Jan. 10, 2023, and telling Oman Fasteners to file any reply by Jan. 17, 2023 (Oman Fasteners v. United States, CIT # 22-00348).
Meta’s Within Unlimited buy “is likely to result in anticompetitive harm by lessening competition” in the virtual reality dedicated fitness app market, “where Within’s Supernatural is the leading firm in a highly concentrated market,” said the FTC’s proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law Friday (docket 5:22-cv-04325) in its lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Jose for a preliminary injunction that would block the transaction.