US Asks CAFC for Remand to Grant EAPA Parties to Access to BCI After Royal Brush Decision

The U.S. asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for a voluntary remand on Nov. 15 in an Enforce and Protect Act case so it can consider the appellate court's decision in Royal Brush Manufacturing v. U.S. In that decision, the Federal Circuit said CBP violated an EAPA respondent's due process rights by not giving it access to the business confidential information in the proceeding (see 2307270038) (American Pacific Plywood v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2321).

The appellants, American Pacific Plywood, U.S. Global Forest, LB Wood Cambodia Co., Cambodian Happy Home Wood Products Co. and InterGlobal Forest, consented to the motion, as did appellee Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood. These companies were parties to the antidumping and countervailing duty proceeding, in which CBP found that American Pacific, U.S. Global Forest and InterGlobal evaded the orders on hardwood plywood from China.

The government said CBP "acknowledges its treatment of confidential business information during the underlying EAPA investigation was inconsistent with this Court’s later holding in Royal Brush." As a result, a remand to the Court of International Trade, "with instructions to remand to Customs to provide access to any confidential business information relied upon by Customs pursuant to a protective order," is proper and addresses the legal defects noted by the plaintiffs.