The U.S. ignored the Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo in defending its circumvention finding on exporter Canadian Solar, the solar panel exporter said in a Nov. 15 reply brief. Canadian Solar said the Commerce Department should not be shown "tremendous" deference, as claimed by the U.S., since the agency doesn't have "unbridled authority to make an affirmative finding of circumvention" (Canadian Solar International v. United States, CIT # 23-00222).
Jacob Kopnick
Jacob Kopnick, Associate Editor, is a reporter for Trade Law Daily and its sister publications Export Compliance Daily and International Trade Today. He joined the Warren Communications News team in early 2021 covering a wide range of topics including trade-related court cases and export issues in Europe and Asia. Jacob's background is in trade policy, having spent time with both CSIS and USTR researching international trade and its complexities. Jacob is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Public Policy.
The U.S. will reliquidate 352 steel entries from importer Valbruna Slater Stainless without Section 232 duties, though the company will drop its challenge seeking refunds of Section 232 duties on 90 additional entries. Filing a stipulated judgment at the Court of International Trade on Nov. 15, the government and Valbruna reached the settlement regarding the company's entries following court-led mediation (see 2411120056). Under the judgment's terms, CBP will "promptly reliquidate," without Section 232 duties, 352 entries of steel articles from Italy laid out in an attachment to the stipulation (Valbruna Slater Stainless v. United States, CIT # 21-00027).
Importer MTD Products dropped its case at the Court of International Trade seeking exclusions from Section 301 China tariffs on its spark-ignition reciprocating or rotary internal combustion piston engines. The company filed a complaint in June, claiming that the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative established exclusions for engines of its type classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheadings 8407.90.1020 and 8407.90.1010 (see 2406060034). Counsel for the importer didn't respond to a request for comment (MTD Products v. United States, CIT # 22-00174).
The Commerce Department continued to use German third-country comparison market data in the antidumping duty investigation on mushrooms from the Netherlands on remand at the Court of International Trade. Addressing the court's concern about whether exporter Prochamp's sales to Germany were actually sold in Germany, the agency said the record lets Commerce "reasonably estimate the percentage of German-language-labelled products sold to Prochamp’s largest German customer," which then may have been sold downstream in another German-speaking country "(i.e., Austria)" (Giorgio Foods v. United States, CIT # 23-00133).
The Court of International Trade defined the term "partners" under the statute regarding affiliation analyses in antidumping duty cases as "a for profit cooperative endeavor in which parties share in risk and reward."
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit granted exporter CVB's bid to voluntarily dismiss its appeal of an injury finding on mattresses from various Asian countries. Since the U.S. is continuing its cross-appeal in the matter, the appellate court renamed the case in a Nov. 18 order. Judge Jimmie Reyna renamed the case to In Re United States (Fed. Cir. # 24-1566).
The Court of International Trade on Nov. 14 dismissed petitioner Aloha Pencil Co.'s case challenging the Commerce Department's recission of the review of the antidumping duty order on cased pencils from China, covering entries in 2022-23. The court noted that Aloha Pencil failed to timely file a complaint. Counsel for the company didn't respond to request for comment (Aloha Pencil Co. v. U.S., CIT # 24-00192).
The facilitator of the World Trade Organization's e-commerce work program called for members to submit their views on a work plan to structure talks on e-commerce between now and the 14th Ministerial Conference, which will take place in early 2026, with the goal of presenting recommendations at MC14, the WTO said.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Judges Kimberly Moore and Richard Taranto probed claims from both exporter Oman Fasteners and the U.S. during oral argument in a suit on the Commerce Department's selection of a surrogate financial statement in an administrative review of an antidumping duty order on steel nails from Oman (Mid Continent Steel & Wire v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 23-1039).
A Venezuelan national was sentenced Nov. 14 to 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme to evade U.S. sanctions on Petroleos de Venezuela, a Venezuelan state-owned oil company, DOJ announced.