The Commerce Department does not need to "poll the industry" to find out if over half of the domestic industry supports an antidumping or countervailing duty petition, Judge Leo Gordon of the Court of International Trade said in an Aug. 16 letter. Responding to consolidated plaintiff M S International's request for a remand directing Commerce to poll the industry or "collect additional information establishing whether there was industry support" for the contested AD/CVD petition, Gordon said this request stemmed from a misunderstanding of the law (Pokarna Engineered Stone Ltd. v. U.S., CIT Consol. #20-00127).

The U.S. will appeal a Court of International Trade decision sustaining the Commerce Department's drop of a particular market situation adjustment to the sales-below-cost test in an antidumping duty review. In an Aug. 13 filing, the U.S. gave notice of its intent to appeal the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The case was brought by Turkish steel company Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret, which challenged an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on circular welded carbon steel standard pipe and tube products from Turkey (see 2106170026). Judge Jane Restani ruled that Commerce improperly applied a PMS adjustment in the below-cost test, finding that such adjustments are only allowed when calculating normal value based on constructed value, as opposed to normal value based on home market sales (Borusan Mannesmann Boru Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. et al v. United States, CIT, Slip Op. 21-75, #20-00015).

The Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood will appeal a Court of International Trade opinion in an anti-circumvention inquiry involving antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the coalition said in a notice of appeal. In the case, the Commerce Department eventually came to find that Shelter Forest International Acquisition's hardwood plywood exports from China were not later-developed merchandise and therefore did not circumvent the AD/CVD orders (see 2107210028). The coalition was the petitioner for the anti-circumvention inquiry and served as the defendant-intervenor in the CIT case (Shelter Forest International Acquisition, Inc. et al. v. U.S., CIT Consol. #19-00212).

Ribbons exporter Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. did not benefit from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Commerce Department said in Aug. 13 remand results filed at the Court of International Trade. Commerce's new determination, filed under respectful protest, led to the reconsideration of its use of adverse facts available in a countervailing duty review and subsequent exclusion of the AFA rate assigned to the EBCP for Yama. Commerce did, however, continue to find that the provision of synthetic yarn and caustic soda for "less than adequate remuneration" did meet the specificity requirement of the law and are deemed countervailable subsidies (Yama Ribbons and Bows Co. v. U.S., CIT #19-00047).

Mexican steel company Deacero S.A.P.I. de C.V. and its U.S. affiliate moved to stay proceedings in its case at the Court of International Trade pending the appeal of a related matter at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an Aug. 12 stay motion. Deacero wants action halted in its case until the Universal Steel Prod., Inc. et al. v. U.S. case has a decision at the Federal Circuit. While Deacero's case challenges the Commerce Department's findings in an antidumping duty review on the grounds that the agency's treatment of Section 232 duties paid by Deacero as ordinary customs duties and deduction from U.S. price are unsupported, the Universal Steel case has broader implications and would eliminate the need for Deacero to litigate the claims.

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

NetJets Aviation, a commercial airline operator, filed an amended complaint on Aug. 11 at the Court of International Trade, dropping its claim under Section 1581(i) after the Department of Justice moved to partially dismiss the case. Following litigation on the issue (see 2108110027), NJA simply moved forward and dropped the claim, succumbing to DOJ's view of the proper jurisdictional home for the case. Judge Claire Kelly also issued an order in the case reserving its decision on the jurisdiction questions in the case but extending the deadline for the U.S. to respond to the amended complaint until Aug. 31. The case is over whether NJA has to issue customs user fees to its passengers (NetJets Aviation, Inc. v. U.S., CIT #21-00142).

The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:

The Commerce Department backed its own remand results in two Court of International Trade cases, citing the plaintiffs' agreement that the remand complied with the court's orders in two comments on the redeterminations. The cases, one challenging an antidumping duty scope ruling on a subset of steel trailer wheels from China, and the other challenging the countervailing duty scope ruling for the same goods, concern the date of imposition for the duties. In May, the court told Commerce to move the imposition date for the duties to the date of publication of the final determination rather than the date of the preliminary determination (see 2105180062). Commerce did so in its remand results (see 2106160026), also indicating that it will issue instructions to CBP to exclude plaintiffs Trans Texas Tire and Zhejiang Jingu Co.'s entries of physical vapor deposition chrome process wheels (PVD chrome wheels) entered between Feb. 25, 2019, and June 24, 2019, from the scope of the investigation (Trans Texas Tire, LLC v. United States, CIT #19-00188, -00189).

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts was right to allow a new trial for Joseph Baptiste in a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit said in an Aug. 9 opinion. Concurring with the district court that Baptiste's counsel was of such deficient performance to allow a retrial, a three-judge panel at the circuit court denied the U.S.'s appeal of the decision to run the trial back.