CIT Grants Voluntary Request to Go Over Issues in ADD/CVD Evasion Over Magnesia Carbon Bricks

The Court of International Trade granted CBP's voluntary motion for a remand in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation over magnesia alumina carbon bricks, in which Fedmet Resources was found to have skirted the order on magnesia carbon bricks from China. CBP requested the voluntary remand, with the consent of Fedmet, to go over key issues raised by the plaintiff, including scope-related and due process arguments (see 2201060035). CBP said it would review the administrative record and potentially provide public versions of certain confidential documents discussed in Fedmet's briefs, possibly alleviating one of the plaintiff's due process concerns by also giving it a chance to provide rebuttal information (Fedmet Resources Corporation v. United States, CIT #21-00248).

While the defendant-intervenor and EAPA alleger, the Magnesia Carbon Bricks Fair Trade Committee, didn't directly oppose the bid for voluntary remand, the committee said it wants any new information placed on the record during the remand to be subject to the terms of the protective order issued in the case. The defendant-intervenor also requested that all filings entered during the remand with confidential information be served on authorized counsel for the private litigants subject to the protective order. In the Jan. 6 order granting the remand, the court said it doesn't have the authority to apply a judicial protective order to agency proceedings, so the committee's sought relief couldn't be granted.