CIT Says ITC Legally Retroactively Applied AD/CV Duties Given Imports Surge Before Duties Enacted

The Court of International Trade on March 16 upheld the International Trade Commission's finding of critical circumstances in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on small vertical shaft engines from China because of a surge in imports shortly before the antidumping and countervailing duties took effect. Judge M. Miller Baker ruled against plaintiff MTD Products' arguments that the ITC used faulty data and improperly weighed the data it did use. MTD said the ITC based its findings on export data subject to large lead times, inaccurate comparison periods and artificial increases in volume due to COVID-19. Baker said the "court will not second-guess" the ITC's findings.