Counsel for an alleged transshipper in a duty evasion scheme, Kingtom Aluminio, plans to ask the Court of International Trade to reconsider a decision it made to deny the company the right to intervene in a case challenging the determination of evasion. In an Enforce and Protect Act case concerning duties on aluminum extrusions from China, CBP found that importer Global Aluminum Distributor evaded the duties by bringing in the extrusions via Kingtom in the Dominican Republic. Global Aluminum says that Kingtom was the actual manufacturer of the goods in question (Global Aluminum Distributor LLC v. U.S., CIT #21-00198).

The Court of International Trade in a June 22 decision dismissed all but one of importer Maple Leaf Marketing's claims against Section 232 steel tariffs levied against goods shipped to Canada for further processing then reimported to the U.S. Finding that the president has broad authority to determine the "nature of the action necessary to adjust imports that threaten the national security," a three-judge panel tossed Maple Leaf's challenges to the imposition of the tariffs on Canada, which Maple Leaf had argued was untimely, as well as to the assessment of Section 232 duties on steel articles qualifying for repair and alteration treatment under Chapter 98, among other things.

Target's complaint filed in the Court of International Trade challenging the court's ability to order the reliquidation of imports past 90 days after their initial liquidation by CBP “masquerades as a motion” for CIT to relitigate this issue, the Department of Justice said in a June 22 motion to dismiss the case. The court's decision in the underlying case, Home Products International Inc. v. United States, already addressed Target's complaint, so the case should be dismissed for failure to state a claim, DOJ said.

The Commerce Department says total adverse facts available is not warranted in an antidumping duty investigation on silicon metal from Malaysia since mandatory respondent PMB Silicon did not actively withhold information, the agency said in a June 16 memorandum issued alongside its final affirmative determination in the investigation.

The Commerce Department's denial of third country sales data for evasion of antidumping duties in establishing normal value in an antidumping duty case lacks proper evidence, shrimp exporter Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited said in a brief filed June 18 with the Court of International Trade. ZASF said that there was no evidence in the record to back Commerce's reliance on CBP's determination in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation that ZASF's shrimp imports from Vietnam evaded antidumping duties from India (Z.A. Sea Foods Private Limited et al v. United States, CIT #21-00031).

The three-judge panel in the Section 301 litigation at the Court of International Trade peppered a government lawyer with tough questions June 17 when the judges asked the Department of Justice to explain how its opposition to a court-ordered reliquidation, or money judgment, if the plaintiffs win the case, doesn’t support a finding of irreparable harm for the importers. Oral argument lasting nearly 80 minutes was held on the preliminary injunction (PI) motion Akin Gump filed April 23 for sample-case plaintiffs HMTX Industries and Jasco Products to freeze liquidation of unliquidated customs entries from China with lists 3 and 4A tariff exposure.

The Commerce Department cannot construe the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy as a de jure specific domestic subsidy in a countervailing duty case on ripe olives from Spain, the Court of International Trade said in a June 17 opinion. Finding for the second time that Commerce’s interpretation of the statute is contrary to law, Judge Gary Katzmann found that the agency cannot permissibly find that the CAP was a countervailable specific domestic subsidy since “there is no uniform treatment across the agricultural sector in the provision of benefits.”

A Commerce Department determination to apply adverse facts available to Thai pipe exporter Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company in an antidumping administrative review and spurn the company's sales and cost databases based on a notice of investigation in an evasion case is "egregious," Saha Thai said in a June 15 motion for judgment in the Court of International Trade. Saha Thai expressed particular concern over Commerce's decision to include the company's U.S. sales of dual-certified pipe in its calculation of the antidumping duty margin since it had already been determined that a scope ruling on dual-certified pipe did not apply to entries covered by the 2018-19 administrative review (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Company Limited v. U.S., CIT #21-00049).

A recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision finding that antidumping duty countrywide rates in non-market economies can still be based on adverse facts available even if no respondents were uncooperative in an administrative review (see 2106100044) will be considered in a Court of International Trade case on the Commerce Department's AFA policy, according to a June 14 notice of supplemental authority from the Department of Justice. The Federal Circuit decision in China Manufacturers Alliance, LLC v. United States "substantially overlaps" with a CIT case over Commerce's NME policy brought by Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co., DOJ said (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group Co., Ltd., v. United States, CIT #18-00191).

It could take two to three years to resolve the massive Section 301 litigation now before the Court of International Trade, especially since it’s “highly likely” the case will be appealed by whichever side loses, David Cohen, a trade expert with Sandler Travis, said on his law firm's webinar June 15. Roughly 3,800 importers are suing the government to declare the lists 3 and 4A tariffs on Chinese goods unlawful and get the money refunded.