Commerce Drops Retroactive Imposition of AD/CV Duties on Steel Trailer Wheels After CIT Decision

The Commerce Department will move the date of imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on a subset of steel trailer wheels from China to the date of publication of the final determination in the investigation, rather than the date of the preliminary determination, it said a pair of remand results filed June 14. The Court of International Trade told Commerce May 18 to make the switch, finding that the agency did not provide proper notice of a scope change during the proceeding (see 2105180062). In two filings, one for the antidumping case and one for the countervailing duty case, Commerce said that it intends to issue instructions to CBP to exclude plaintiffs Trans Texas Tire and Zhejiang Jingu Co.'s entries of physical vapor deposition (PVD) chrome wheels entered between Feb. 25, 2019, and June 24, 2019, from the scope of the investigation (Trans Texas Tire, LLC v. United States, CIT #19-00188-00189).

In the May 18 opinion, Judge Gary Katzmann sustained a scope revision from Commerce, saying the agency had adequate reasoning for its decision to include PVD chrome-covered wheels in the AD/CVD orders. However, Katzmann took issue with Commerce's imposition of duties stemming from its decision from the date of the ruling's preliminary determination as opposed to its final determination. Commerce's instructions to CBP “give effect to the Court’s holding that 'reasonably informed importers were not provided clear or meaningful notice of the inclusion of PVD chrome wheels until the publication of the Final Scope Memo,'” Commerce said in its remand results.