Importer URE NSP Corp. moved to dismiss its case at the Court of International Trade challenging CBP's miscalculating of its antidumping duty payments on solar cells from Taiwan. The importer said in its complaint that CBP ignored its prior disclosure payments, then partially denied a protest seeking those funds (see 2308140010). The company asked the court to order a refund of about $311,00 plus interest for overpayment of duties (URE NSP Corp. v. United States, CIT # 23-00154).

The U.S. challenged exporter Risen Energy Co.'s motion to amend its complaint to add a challenge to the Commerce Department's decision to treat Article 26(2) Tax Exemption Program as countervailable. Filing a brief at the Court of International Trade on Nov. 9, the government said the motion to amend "is futile, and thus lacks merit" since Risen "failed to exhaust its administrative remedies with respect to this claim and none of the limited exceptions to the exhaustion requirement apply" (Risen Energy Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00153).

The following lawsuit was recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas temporarily halted administrative proceedings concerning SpaceX's export control-related hiring practices, in a Nov. 8 order. Granting the space exploration company's motion for a preliminary injunction in part and denying it in part, Judge Rolando Olvera said SpaceX is likely to succeed on its claim that a law making it illegal to discriminate based on citizenship status in hiring decisions, 8 U.S.C. 1324b, violates the Appointments Clause under the U.S. Constitution (Space Exploration Technologies v. Carol Bell, S.D. Tex. # 23-00137).

Court of International Trade Judge Gary Katzmann questioned U.S. steelmakers and the International Trade Commission about whether the commission's previous instances in cumulating imports during sunset reviews constituted an "agency practice," as part of a series of questions before upcoming oral arguments. The case concerns the ITC's decision not to cumulate imports of cold-rolled steel from Brazil with those of China, India, Japan and the U.K., in sunset reviews (Cleveland-Cliffs v. U.S., CIT # 22-00257).

Exporter Midwest-CBK will appeal a May 2022 Court of International Trade decision, which said that sales from a Canadian warehouse to U.S. customers are sales "for exportation to the United States" instead of "domestic sales." After losing on this claim last year, the case shifted to an inquiry into the value of the goods. Midwest-CBK said that, due to its business model, it couldn't litigate this issue, and so it made the decision to ditch this claim so it could appeal its original argument (see 2310200054). Per its Nov. 8 notice of appeal, the exporter will take its suit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Midwest-CBK v. United States, CIT # 17-00154).

Italian pasta exporters La Molisana and Valdigrano di Flavio Pagani failed in their attempt to provide compelling reasons for the Commerce Department to do away with "longstanding, transparent, and consistent instructions for reporting protein content," the U.S. said in a Nov. 9 reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (La Molisana v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-2060).

Countervailing duty petitioners' opposition to exporter Tau-Ken Temri's (TKT's) bid to expand its word count for its reply brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit falls flat, the exporter, along with the Kazakh Ministry of Trade and Integration, argued in a Nov. 6 brief to the appellate court. TKT said that it needs the extra words to respond to briefs from both the U.S. and petitioners Globe Specialty Metals and Mississippi Silicon because, contrary to Globe's suggestion, the briefs don't make identical arguments (Tau-Ken Temir v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 22-2204).

The Commerce Department's cross-owned input supplier analysis in a case on the 2018 countervailing duty review of steel concrete reinforcing bar from Turkey "has a direct and precedential bearing" on the Court of International Trade's decision in the case on the 2020 review of the same order, exporter Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret told the trade court (Kaptan Demir Celik Endustrisi ve Ticaret v. United States, CIT # 22-00149).

The Court of International Trade on Nov. 7 dismissed an antidumping duty case from lumber importer West Fraser Mills for failure to file a complaint by the time limits set in court rules. West Fraser was challenging the Commerce Department's 2021 review of the antidumping duty order on softwood lumber products from Canada (West Fraser Mills v. U.S., CIT # 23-00209).