An anti-circumvention inquiry launched by the Commerce Department failed to name mandatory respondents or seek more than minimal information from exporters, a number of lumber importers and exporters of hardwood plywood from Vietnam said Feb. 1 in support of a motion for summary judgment (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. U.S., CIT # 23-00144).

Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninetsar Corp. filed its motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade on Jan. 22 against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Made public Jan. 31, the brief emphasizes arguments already made in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction (see 2312180057) (Ninestar Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 26 declined to dismiss a False Claims Act suit from a whistleblower that alleges her employer misclassified footwear to avoid tariffs. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger said the fact none of the defendants served as the importer of record for the allegedly undervalued footwear imports is irrelevant for purposes of establishing liability under the FCA (United States ex rel. Devin Taylor v. GMI USA Corp., S.D.N.Y. # 16-7216).

The Senate on Feb. 1 voted 53-42 to confirm Lisa Wang to serve as a judge on the Court of International Trade.

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 31 remanded for a third time the Commerce Department's use of Mexican wage data to calculate surrogate labor costs in the antidumping duty investigation on beer kegs from China. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce abused its discretion in rejecting Brazilian data, favored by petitioner American Keg, and continuing to use Mexican International Labour Organization data.

Texas company Kubota North America was ordered Jan. 25 to pay $2 million for falsely labeling replacement parts for tractors, mowers, utility vehicles, and construction and agricultural equipment as having been made in the U.S. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a stipulated judgment against the company, which included the penalty and compliance reporting and record-keeping requirements for the next 20 years (U.S. v. Kubota North America Corp., N.D. Tex. # 3:24-00159).

Exporter Oman Fasteners asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 29 to dismiss petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire's appeal of a Court of International Trade decision imposing an injunction on the Commerce Department's antidumping duty cash deposits on Oman Fasteners' steel nail imports. The exporter said the injunction is no longer active because the Commerce Department completed the next administrative review of the AD order, so there is no live controvery in the case (Oman Fasteners v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1661).

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The Court of International Trade on Jan. 30 said that for drawback purposes the 10-digit Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings should be read starting with their directly adjacent text and not the superior indented text. Judge Claire Kelly said the "plain meaning" of the statute governing substituted unused merchandise drawbacks refers to the "words describing the article adjacent to the 10-digit number."

A Commerce Department scope ruling on T-series aluminum sheet "would overturn more than 10 years of black-letter law related to scope inquiries," importer Valeo North America told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 26. Filing an opening brief at the appellate court, Valeo said that Commerce bucked the traditional framework for finding if a good is within the scope of an antidumping and countervailing duty order by extending "beyond the express scope language" to rely on improper (k)(1) factors (Valeo North America v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1189).