The Commerce Department issued Federal Register notices on its recently initiated antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on freight rail couplers from China (A-570-145/C-570-146) and an antidumping duty investigation on freight rail couplers from Mexico (A-201-857). The agency will determine whether imports of sodium nitrite are being sold in the U.S. at less than fair value or are illegally subsidized.
The Commerce Department must revisit its countervailing duty rate calculations for the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act and its finding that Germany's KAV program is de jure specific, the Court of International Trade ruled in an Oct. 12 opinion made public Oct. 20. However, Judge Claire Kelly upheld the remaining points of contention in the case brought by BGH Edelstahl Siegen. including whether Commerce properly initiated the CVD investigation, the finding that the administrative record is complete, and "the determination that the provisions of the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act, the EEG and KWKG Reduced Surcharge Programs, the ETS Additional Free Emissions Allowances, and the CO2 Compensation Program are countervailable subsidies."
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 12 confidential opinion remanded the Commerce Department's final determination in the countervailing duty investigation on forged steel fluid end blocks from Germany. In a text-only order, Judge Claire Kelly ordered Commerce to reconsider its position that the KAV program -- a concession fee ordinance program for public transport routes -- is a specific subsidy, and its rate calculations for the Electricity Tax Act and the Energy Tax Act. Kelly, in a letter to litigants, gave parties to the case until Oct. 19 to review the confidential information in the opinion (BGH Edelstahl Siegen v. United States, CIT #21-00080).
The Court of International Trade in an Oct. 5 opinion made public Oct. 12 upheld parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's final results in the 2018 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate from South Korea. Judge Mark Barnett held that Commerce must reconsider or further explain its decision not to investigate off-peak electricity sold for less than adequate remuneration and its decision not to treat respondent POSCO's affiliate POSCO Plantec as a cross-owned input supplier for the supply of scrap.
A listing of recent Commerce Department antidumping and countervailing duty messages posted to CBP's website Oct. 11, 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 is amending the final results of a countervailing duty administrative review on certain hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea (C-580-884) to correct a duty calculation for Hyundai Steel Company. In the final results of that review, covering calendar year 2017, Commerce assigned to Hyundai Steel Company, the mandatory respondent, a CV duty cash deposit rate of 0.51%.
The Commerce Department on Sept. 28 released its final determination in its countervailing duty investigation on oil country tubular goods from Russia (C-821-834). Suspension of liquidation is currently not in effect for entries on or after July 12, 2022, and Commerce will require cash deposits of estimated CV duties on future entries only if it issues a CV duty order (though entries are still suspended under Commerce's concurrent antidumping duty investigation).
The Commerce Department is amending the final results of a countervailing duty administrative review on forged steel fittings from China (C-570-068) to correct a duty calculation for Both-Well (Taizhou) Steel Fittings, Co., Ltd. In the final results of that review, covering the period March 14, 2018, to Dec. 31, 2018, Commerce assigned to Both-Well, the mandatory respondent, a dumping margin of 25.9%.
The Commerce Department properly dropped its use of facts available over a South Korean port usage rights program in a countervailing duty review, the Court of International Trade ruled Sept. 19. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves also found that because the result is a de minimis rate, reviewing whether the program is countervailable "would have no practical significance and is mooted," sustaining Commerce's remand results.
The Commerce Department properly found that the South Korean government did not provide a countervailable subsidy via the provision of electricity below cost, the U.S. argued in a Sept. 12 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case's second visit to the appellate court. Replying to countervailing duty petitioner and plaintiff-appellant Nucor Corp., the government said that it carried out a lawful "Tier 3" less than adequate remuneration (LTAR) analysis, looking at whether the Korean government sets its tariffs pursuant to market principles, and that it did not violate the Federal Circuit's prior ruling in the case since it did not undertake a preferentiality analysis. Nucor ignored the "lion's share of Commerce's actual determination," when arguing that the agency did carry out a preferentiality analysis, the brief said (POSCO v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1525).