Should the Commerce Department's ACCESS system go down while counsel is attempting to submit documents in a proceeding with the agency, the attorney should document everything to avoid consequences for missed deadlines, said Evangeline Keenan, director of the APO/dockets unit at Commerce, during panel discussion June 14 at the Georgetown Law International Trade Update conference. Speaking on the limits of the ACCESS platform, Keenan said that the agency "will take responsibility if ACCESS is causing problems," while noting that if the issue resides with the attorney's or paralegal's own internet access, then it's their responsibility.

The Commerce Department has had to change its practices in countervailing duty cases when dealing with the China Export Buyer's Credit Program (EBCP), despite the increased burden on the agency, due to a series of unfavorable court decisions, lawyers said during a panel discussion at Georgetown Law's annual International Trade Update June 13.

The Commerce Department may still use single respondents in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, despite a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruling that found fault with the practice in one proceeding, a Justice Department attorney said during Georgetown Law's Annual International Trade Update conference on June 13.

The Court of International Trade on June 14 granted importer Maple Leaf Marketing's bid to redesignate the U.S.'s counterclaim as a defense in a customs spat on the classification of boronized steel tubing. Dismissing Maple Leaf's bid to dismiss as moot, Judge Claire Kelly cited the court's Cyber Power Systems (USA) v. U.S. decision to find that nowhere in Congress' scheme on the classification of goods does the legislative body explicitly let the U.S. "assert a counterclaim challenging CBP's classification."

The Court of International Trade on June 14 dismissed a suit from three conservation groups seeking to compel the Interior Department to decide whether Mexico is engaging in illegal trade and fishing of the totoaba fish, which threatens the endangered vaquita porpoise. The parties reached a settlement in April under which the agency found that Mexican nationals are violating the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (see 2306020054). Due to this finding, the U.S. could impose an embargo on any goods coming from Mexico.

There is no requirement that an importer intentionally evade duties to be hit by an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, the Court of International Trade ruled in a June 13 opinion. Upholding CBP's finding that importers Ikadan System USA and Weihai Gaosai Metal Product Co. evaded the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on steel grating from China, Judge Leo Gordon rejected the importers' claim that the definition of "evasion" requires a finding of some level of culpability.

The World Trade Organization is steadily headed towards irrelevancy to global trade and is facing a "long, slow sunset," said Peter Harrell, former senior director for international economics and competitiveness at the White House, during remarks at the Georgetown International Trade Update on June 13.

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Tire exporter Pirelli's claim that the labelling of its board members as "independent" under Italian law requires the Commerce Department to find that the company rebutted the presumption of Chinese state control "misses the mark," the Court of International Trade ruled on June 9. Again upholding the 2017-18 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves said the question for Commerce is whether Pirelli rebutted the presumption of Chinese state control, not control by another company, which is what the "independent" label measures.

The Commerce Department made no changes its margin calculations for antidumping respondent Zinus Indonesia in its June 9 remand results an a case involving an administrative review on mattresses from India, with the agency saying that it fully addressed the Court of International Trade's remand order in the case and was not required to change its calculations if it fully explained its choices (PT. Zinus Global Indonesia v. U.S., CIT # 21-00277).