The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Nov. 3-9:
Court of International Trade
The United States Court of International Trade is a federal court which has national jurisdiction over civil actions regarding the customs and international trade laws of the United States. The Court was established under Article III of the Constitution by the Customs Courts Act of 1980. The Court consists of nine judges appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is located in New York City. The Court has jurisdiction throughout the United States and has exclusive jurisdictional authority to decide civil action pertaining to international trade against the United States or entities representing the United States.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 27 - Nov. 2:
The antidumping duty rate for an exporter of wooden bedroom furniture from China appears set to fall, after the Court of International Trade on Oct. 28 sustained the Commerce Department’s fourth redetermination in a long-running dispute over an administrative review of entries in 2007 (here). The AD rate for Guangdong Yihua Timber Industry Co., Ltd. will fall from 29.89% to 21.53% as a result of the decision. No new rate has been calculated for Yihua Timber in administrative reviews of entries since 2007, so if the CIT decision stands Yihua Timber’s cash deposit rate will also fall to 21.53%.
A coalition of domestic manufacturers pushing for renewed antidumping duties on diamond sawblades from South Korea was dealt a blow on Oct. 29, as the Court of International Trade sustained zero percent AD duty rates for two South Korean exporters (here). The case could have resulted in reinstatement of the AD duty order (see 13102802), which was revoked in 2011 to implement a World Trade Organization mandate (see 11102822). But with rates for Ehwa and Shinhan affirmed at zero percent by CIT, the possibility of reinstatement “has been foreclosed by this decision,” said Max Schutzman of Grunfeld Desiderio, who represented Ehwa in the case. The decision is still subject to appeal. An attorney for the Diamond Sawblades Manufacturers Coalition did not immediately return a request for comment.
A decision on whether to impose antidumping and countervailing duties on circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates again appears to be up in the air, after the Court of International Trade ordered the International Trade Commission to reconsider aspects of its negative final injury determination in a decision issued Oct. 15 and made public on Oct. 27 (here). The AD/CVD investigations had ended in December 2012 with no duties imposed because of the ITC’s finding of no injury to domestic industry (see 12111505). However, CIT now wants the ITC to reconsider certain evidence, including whether a recovering economy post-2008 may have masked the ill effects of dumping and illegal subsidization on domestic producers.
The Court of International Trade recently granted an injunction barring CBP from requiring a single transaction bond (STB) covering an importer’s entries subject to antidumping duties on fresh garlic of China. In an Oct. 16 decision released to the public on Oct. 22, the court said CBP’s decision to require STBs on 129 containers of garlic imported by Kwo Lee, Inc. at the $4.71/kg China-wide rate, instead of the $0.35/kg cash deposit rate normally assigned to the garlic’s exporter, threatens to bankrupt the importer and should be put on hold until the case is decided.
All motions to keep a case on the Court of International Trade’s Reserve Calendar must be filed 30 days before expiration of the Reserve Calendar period, even in cases where a litigant is requesting a subsequent extension, said CIT Judge Delissa Ridgway in an opinion issued Oct. 20. The issue came up in a recent decision (here) where Judge Ridgway grudgingly granted an extension to the Reserve Calendar period for Rockwell Automation in a tariff classification case, despite finding Rockwell’s requests were filed late.
Finished subassemblies must include non-extruded aluminum components in order to be exempt from antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China, said the Commerce Department in a scope ruling issued Oct. 14. Whether or not aluminum heater core inlet and outlet tubes imported from China by Delphi Automotive Systems qualify as subassemblies, they are made entirely of aluminum extrusions so they can’t qualify for the “finished merchandise” exemption and are subject to AD/CV duties, said Commerce.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 13-19:
The Commerce Department is amending the antidumping duty cash deposit rate for stainless steel sinks from China (A-570-983) produced and exported by Shenzen Kehuaxing Industrial Ltd., in order to implement a recent Court of International Trade Decision. During the original AD duty investigation on stainless steel sinks, Kehuaxing’s lawyer filed a required submission 16 minutes late. Commerce rejected the filing and, because the submission was partly used to demonstrate independence from state control, assigned Kehuaxing to the China-wide entity with an AD duty cash deposit rate of 76.53% (see 13041023). CIT thought that too harsh, and in May remanded so Commerce could accept the late submission (see 14051202). Commerce is now giving Kehuaxing its own AD duty cash deposit rate of 33.51%, for subject merchandise both produced and exported by the company. The new rate takes effect July 7.