Court of International Trade

In a consolidated suit over the May 2005-April 2006 antidumping duty administrative review of ball bearings and parts thereof, seven Japanese producers challenged the International Trade Administration’s use of zeroing and the ITA’s methods for matching U.S. to home market sales for price comparisons. Noting that in a recent decision the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled the ITA’s continued use of zeroing in reviews after abandoning it in investigations was unsupported by law, the Court of International Trade ordered the ITA to reconsider its use of zeroing in the ball bearings review at issue. The CIT also ordered it to reconsider three aspects of its model matching methodology in response to the Japanese producers’ arguments. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/04/11 news, 11040408, for BP summary of CAFC decision overturning the continued use of zeroing in AD reviews.) (Slip Op. 11-52, dated 05/05/11)

On April 21, 2011, the U.S. announced its intention to implement the World Trade Organization's Appellate Body ruling against its practice of “double counting” subsidies in four U.S. antidumping and countervailing investigations of products from China (DS379), and requested a reasonable period of time to do so.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced that it has received notice that the National Candle Association¹ intends to contest CBP's determination that certain wickless wax items should be classified under HTS heading 9602 instead of under heading 3406. CBP is also providing notice that Port Directors at five ports of entry must notify the NCA when the first of such entries are liquidated.

The International Trade Administration is publishing a "Timken"¹ notice that a recent court ruling is not in harmony with the ITA's final AD determination on steel threaded rod from China (A-570-932), and is amending its final determination and order to reduce the AD duty rate for one exporter/producer combination.

In the August 2006 - July 2007 antidumping duty administrative review of polyethylene retail carrier bags from Thailand, the International Trade Administration applied a “total adverse facts available” rate of 122.88% to two uncooperative Thai producers, King Pac Industrial Co., Ltd. and Master Packaging Co, Ltd. The U.S. importer, KYD, Inc., having attempted to cooperate with the review, challenged the high rate determination as applied to its imports. The Court of International Trade cited the large difference between the adverse rate and the actual calculated rates for the 2006-07 review, and remanded the matter to the ITA to find a lower adverse rate for the importer, reasoning that an AFA rate must be "a reasonably accurate estimate of the respondent’s actual rate, albeit with some built-in increase intended as a deterrent to noncompliance.” (Slip Op. 11-49, dated 04/28/11)

The Court of International Trade has ruled in Graphite Sales v. U.S., that while electric heating resistors are prima facie classifiable under both Harmonized Tariff Schedule headings 8516 as "electric heating resistors" and 9613 as "other electrical lighters", the resistors are properly classifiable under duty-free HTS 8516.80.80, as it provides a more specific description.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the Court of International Trade's decision in Dell Products LP, v. U.S., that for tariff purposes, goods put up in sets for retail sale refers to goods that are offered to customers as a set for purchase rather than to a collection of goods that are assembled into a set after the customer has purchased them, in which case, the goods would be classified separately.

The International Trade Administration originally proposed a China-wide “adverse facts” antidumping duty rate of 45.25% for imports of heavy forged hand tools from producer/exporter Shandong Machinery Import & Export Company, for the review period of February 2005 through January 2006, arguing that the rate must be higher than the prior rate of 34.56% in order to ensure cooperation. In the first remand, the Court of International Trade found the agency had failed to corroborate the 45.25% rate and ordered the agency to use a “different rate.” However, in the second remand, the court ruled out as “punitive” a revised rate of 109.16%, which was based on a single sale in the preceding review. The CIT then instructed the agency to revert to the 45.25% rate, but with corroboration, and the court has now accepted this result. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 08/18/10 news, 10081817, for BP summary of the CIT’s second remand.) (Slip Op. 11-47, dated 04/26/11)

The International Trade Administration is issuing amended antidumping duty orders on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from Brazil, India, China, Thailand, and Vietnam in order to include dusted shrimp¹ within the scope of the orders (A-351-838, A-533-840, A-570-893, A-549-822, and A-552-802).

In response to a Court of International Trade remand on the final results of the antidumping duty investigation of certain steel threaded rod from China, the International Trade Administration reconsidered the exclusion of financial data for an Indian pre-stressed concrete wire products manufacturer from the normal value calculation, conceding that the Indian firm did make “comparable merchandise.” With the resulting altered normal value, the dumping margin declined from 55.16% to 47.37% for Chinese producer/exporters Jiaxing Brother Fastener Co., Ltd, a.k.a. Brother Standard Parts Co., Ltd., IFI & Morgan Ltd., and RMB Fasteners Ltd. (Slip Op. 11-44, dated 04/21/11)