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The Commerce Department will not consider arguments for a particular market situation that are devoid of quantifiable data, the agency said as part of a proposed update to its antidumping duty regulations. While Commerce acknowledged that it legally can consider non-quantifiable data per the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision in NEXTEEL v. U.S. (see 2304200048), the agency said it finds such arguments "typically unhelpful" to its analysis, proposing to not be required to consider them in determining whether a PMS exists. Commerce added that it will not be required to consider "speculative costs or prices" as well.

The Court of International Trade on April 27 upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in a case involving the 2018 administrative review of the countervailing duty order on utility scale wind towers from Vietnam. The Wind Tower Trade Coalition failed to convince the court that CS Wind Vietnam manipulated its rate in the review by redesigning its operations or that Commerce failed to correctly investigate the source of steel plate used in the towers.

GreenFirst Forest is not the successor to Rayonier A.M. Canada (RYAM) for the purposes of countervailing duty calculation because RYAM still exists, DOJ said in its May 3 response brief at the Court of International Trade. DOJ asked the court to sustain Commerce’s remand redetermination on softwood lumber products from Canada (GreenFirst Forest Products v. U.S., CIT # 22-00097).

CBP ignored Congress' "unambiguous express statutory command when it failed to distribute" interest assessed after liquidation, known as delinquency interest, under the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, appellant Monterey Mushrooms said in a reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Adee Honey Farms, et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 22-2105).

The Commerce Department dropped its presumption that exporter Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. was controlled by the Chinese government after the Court of International Trade questioned whether the agency could disregard an individually selected respondent's data in favor of the country-wide non-market economy rate. In its remand results to the trade court, Commerce assigned Jilin a zero percent dumping rate using the company's actual submissions during an antidumping duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co. v. United States, CIT # 18-00191).

The Court of International Trade upheld the finding of CBP's Office of Regulations and Rulings (ORR) that MSeafood Corp. did not evade antidumping duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from India by transshipping the products through Vietnam, in a decision released to the public May 4. Judge Claire Kelly said that CBP in its affirmative evasion finding failed to consider evidence showing exporter Minh Phu Group's tracing system is reliable and arbitrarily transformed a single instance of evasion into an evasion finding for a whole year.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rejected importer China Custom Manufacturing's rehearing bid in an antidumping and countervailing duty scope case. In the decision, Judges Pauline Newman, Raymond Chen and Tiffany Cunningham said CCM's solar panel mounts do not qualify for the "finished merchandise" exclusion from antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China (see 2303020037). In its rehearing motion, CCM said that rehearing was needed to maintain uniformity of the appellate court's prior decisions concerning the "unambiguous plain language" of the finished merchandise exclusion rule. The rehearing bid was referred to the three judges that heard the case, then sent to the remaining active judges on the court (China Custom Manufacturing v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1345).

The Commerce Department can't use total adverse facts available for countervailing duty respondent The Ancientree Cabinet Co.'s alleged use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade ruled in a decision released to the public May 3. While Ancientree only submitted loan information for most but not all of its customers, the trade court found perfection is not required to verify non-use of the program.

The Court of International Trade on May 2 upheld a CBP evasion finding in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation, with Judge Jane Restani finding that the standard for initiation of an EAPA investigation is low and that the "voluminous evidence" provided by an initial allegation filed by M&B meets both the government’s and importer CEK Group's proposed standards of reasonable suggestion.