A Washington, D.C., court last week rejected a Russian citizen’s bid to dismiss government accusations that he misled investors about his company’s “key” space technology and several U.S. “adverse national security determinations” against the company. The ruling came after the Securities and Exchange Commission said Mikhail Kokorich, former CEO of space industry startup Momentus, made several “misrepresentations, false statements, and material omissions” in merger discussions with another firm, failing to disclose that the Commerce Department had rejected at least one of his company's export license applications and planned to deny another (SEC v. Mikhail Kokorich, D.D.C. # 21-1869).

CBP can confer classification "treatment" on a good through consistent decisions at a single port, the Court of International Trade ruled March 24. Finding importer Kent International's imported child safety seats for bicycles should be classified as seats rather than bicycle parts, Judge Leo Gordon agreed with Kent that the Port of New York/Newark's consistent classification of them as seats constituted treatment on a "national basis" because the standard does not require treatment to have been applied at multiple ports, only that CBP not take inconsistent actions over a two-year period.

The International Trade Commission's decision not to cumulate imports of cold-rolled steel from Brazil with the other countries under consideration in the five-year reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on cold-rolled steel flat products "was clearly inconsistent" with the Court of International Trade's past rulings on cumulation in sunset reviews, a group of U.S. companies argued (Cleveland-Cliffs v. United States, CIT # 22-00257).

Importers in the massive litigation over President Donald Trump's Section 301 action on China will appeal Court of International Trade rulings upholding the tariffs. Pratik Shah, counsel for lead plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products, said he believes the importers' arguments are strong.

Commerce illegally departed from its standard methodology when it decided to use third-country control number (CONNUM) costs in the final results of an antidumping duty review on lined paper products from India and then attempted to obscure its standard practice as a defense in court, Navneet said in a March 17 reply at the Court of International Trade. The court should remand the case to Commerce with instructions to recalculate Navneet’s 20.22% dumping margin, the brief said (Navneet Education v. U.S., CIT # 22-00132).

Two separate motions for summary judgment in a case involving allegedly defective plywood were shot down by Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves in a March 20 opinion. Choe-Groves found that Bral had not sufficiently made a case under the customs regulations that all its imported plywood was defective and should have been appraised at a lower value, but neither had DOJ proven otherwise.

Minority ownership by government-controlled entities does not change the presumption of government control, Court of International Trade Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled in a March 20 opinion. The opinion upheld the Commerce Department's use of the China-wide rate for Pirelli Tyre on remand, with Choe-Groves holding that Pirelli failed to rebut the presumption in an antidumping duty administrative review of certain passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China.

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The Commerce Department legally used a quarterly ratios methodology to set the quantity of subject mattresses sold by respondent Zinus Indonesia in an antidumping duty investigation, the Court of International Trade ruled on March 20. Ruling on seven specific challenges raised by Zinus Indonesia and AD petitioner Brooklyn Bedding, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves also upheld Commerce's decision to use surrogate financial information from Indian mattress maker Emirates Sleep Systems, calculation and application of a profit cap and adjustment to Zinus U.S.'s reported sales deductions.

The Court of International Trade on March 20 upheld the Commerce Department's withdrawal of a separate-rate questionnaire it had erroneously issued to exporter Jin Tiong Electrical Materials Manufacturer in an antidumping review, finding Commerce's rejection of the company's answers as untimely was proper because the agency had withdrawn the questionnaire before Jin Tiong submitted its response.