The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on diffusion-annealed, nickel-plated flat-rolled steel products from Japan (A-588-869). Commerce set an AD rate of 7.49% for Toyo Kohan Co., Ltd., slightly higher than the 7.21% rate set in the preliminary results. Commerce will assess AD duties on importers at import-specific rates for subject merchandise from Toyo Kohan entered May 1, 2019, through April 30, 2020, it said. The new AD duty cash deposit rate for Toyo Kohan takes effect Jan. 31, the scheduled publication date of these final results in the Federal Register.
The Commerce Department on Jan. 21 issued a final scope ruling continuing to find "veneered panels" with only two layers of veneer are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on hardwood plywood from China (A-570-051/C-570-052), and that their processing in Vietnam into plywood by adding face and back veneers does not substantially transform the panels into a product of Vietnam.
Judges wrestled with whether to let state courts handle Altice’s challenge of New Jersey Board of Public Utilities cable prorating rules, at virtual oral argument Thursday in the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On Cable Act preemption, judges were skeptical about Altice’s argument that the state can’t force it to prorate bills when customers end service early.
The Commerce Department's requirement that an antidumping respondent report all of its factors of production (FOP) data on a control number (CONNUM)-specific basis violated the law because it's a legislative rule subject to the Administrative Procedure Act but was imposed without the required notice-and-comment period, respondent Shanxi Pioneer Hardware Industrial Co. said in a Jan. 26 brief. Responding to arguments from the Department of Justice and the AD petitioner at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Pioneer also said that even if the requirement isn't deemed a legislative rule, Commerce's CONNUM-specific rule is unlawful since it restricted the agency's ability to rely on non-CONNUM-specific data (Xi'an Metals & Minerals Import & Export Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #21-2205).
California’s net neutrality law survived an appeal by ISP associations at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit panel agreed with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, which last February denied a preliminary injunction against California’s 2018 law. ACA Connects, CTIA, NCTA and USTelecom last March appealed in case 21-15430.
The trade provisions of the America COMPETES Act of 2022, the House's answer to the Senate U.S. Innovation and Opportunity Act, proposes some dramatic changes to antidumping and countervailing laws. The ADD/CVD section draws on a bipartisan bill from the Senate led by Ohio's two senators, but co-sponsored by Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind. Young will be a major player on the conference committee, so that suggests that the ADD/CVD changes could well end up in the final package.
Dolby objects to LG’s “late-breaking request” for discovery in support of its motion for a 14-day temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against Dolby, attorney William Michael of Paul Weiss wrote U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty of Manhattan Tuesday. LG alleges Dolby violated the Sherman Antitrust Act and unfair-competition laws by reneging on commitments Dolby made to ATSC to license its AC-4 audio codec patents for NextGenTV on fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms (see 2201090001). With so many redactions in LG’s memorandum of law in support of its TRO/PI, it’s virtually impossible for the public to identify the allegedly harmful Dolby conduct that LG is asking the court to enjoin. Dolby’s response to LG’s TRO/PI motion is due Monday. “At no point before last Friday” did LG even raise the possibility of seeking discovery on its motion, said Michael. “Now, on the eve of Dolby filing its opposition,” LG “all of a sudden thinks discovery is necessary,” he said. “Perhaps in the intervening month” since LG filed for the TRO/PI, its “confidence in its motion has wavered,” he said. “Whatever the motivation behind its request, the Court should not even consider it at this stage.” LG “has never provided any details about the discovery it wants to take, on what timeline it would occur,” or why it waited until now “to even raise the topic,” he said. LG attorneys didn’t comment.
The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping investigations on steel nails from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey (A-533-904, A-542-804, A-549-844, A-489-846) and countervailing duty investigations on steel nails from India, Oman, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey (C-533-905, C-523-817, C-542-805, C-549-845, C-489-847).
The Commerce Department issued the final results of the antidumping duty administrative review on polyethylene terephthalate film from Taiwan (A-583-837). Commerce continued to find, as it did in the preliminary results of this review, that Nan Ya Plastics Corp. did not undersell subject merchandise during the period of review, assigning the company a zero percent AD duty rate. Subject merchandise from Nan Ya entered between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, will be liquidated without any assessment of AD duties, and future entries of subject merchandise exported by Nan Ya won't be subject to AD duty cash deposit requirements until further notice. The new AD duty cash deposit rate takes effect Jan. 27, when the final results are set to be published in the Federal Register.
Consumer intentions to buy new TV sets jumped in January from December, according to preliminary Conference Board data released Tuesday. Toluna canvassed 5,000 U.S. homes for the board through Jan. 19, finding 10.7% plan to buy a new TV set in the next six months, up from 9.9% in December, unchanged from 10.7% in November but down from 11.4% in January 2021. Consumer confidence fell 1.4 points in January after three straight months of gains, as consumers’ “short-term expectations” weakened, said the board. “Concerns about inflation declined for the second straight month, but remain elevated after hitting a 13-year high in November,” it said.