CIT Awards Fees & Costs to Diamond Sawblades Mfrs. Assoc. for AD Trade Enforcement Suit

Domestic manufacturers grouped together in 2005 to file an antidumping duty petition against diamond sawblade imports from Korea and China, and later successfully challenged a determination by the International Trade Commission that their industry was not threatened with injury by such imports.

Prevailing on appeal, the sawblade manufacturers were then granted a writ of mandamus by the Court of International Trade instructing the International Trade Administration to publish an AD duty order and impose cash deposits on imports of diamond saw blades. However the ITA merely suspended liquidation and did not otherwise execute the court’s mandamus, citing a possible appeal of the CIT's remand.

The CIT then ordered the ITA, in September 2009, to proceed with publication of an AD duty order and to require the collection of AD duties on subject merchandise.

Now, in a third successive victory for the domestic association, the CIT has ordered the government to pay the Diamond Sawblade Manufacturers’ Association its fees and costs for the action the group brought to enforce the mandamus and force the ITA to issue the AD order and impose cash deposits.

Unusually for trade enforcement actions, the association brought its suit under the authority of the Equal Access to Justice Act (28 USC 2412). In awarding fees and costs, the court noted that it had previously “rejected arguments that its orders require less than full compliance,” finding that the ITA’s “position was not substantially justified,” and that the agency “should have been clear as to its administrative obligations.”

(See ITT’s Online Archives 09112360 for summary of CIT September 2009 writ of mandamus to the ITA to issue AD orders and cash deposit instructions.)

CIT Slip Op. 12-12, dated 01/26/12