A group of U.S. mattress makers led by Brooklyn Bedding filed a complaint at the Court of International Trade on Feb. 5 challenging the Commerce Department's decision to find exporter PT Ecos Jaya Indonesia's tri-folding mattresses were not within the scope of the antidumping duty order on mattresses from Indonesia (Brooklyn Bedding v. United States, CIT # 24-00002).

German exporters, led by Ilsenburger Grobblech, filed an opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging the Commerce Department's decision to use adverse facts available against exporter Salzgitter Mannesmann Stahlhandel in an antidumping duty investigation on cut-to-length carbon and alloy steel plate from Germany (Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1219).

Indonesian mattress exporter PT Ecos Jaya Indonesia and its affiliate PT Grantec Jaya Indonesia launched a challenge at the Court of International Trade against the Commerce Department's calculation of the exporter's constructed value and constructed export profit and selling expense ratios. The company objected to Commerce's use of financial data from Malaysian mattress maker Masterfoam Industries and Indian mattress conglomerate Kurlon Enterprise as surrogate sources (PT Ecos Jaya Indonesia v. United States, CIT # 24-00001).

The U.S. Senate on Feb. 5 confirmed the nomination of Joseph Laroski to serve as the next judge on the Court of International Trade. The nomination of Laroski, who most recently worked as a partner at antidumping and countervailing duty petitioners' firm Schagrin Associates, passed by a unanimous vote of 76-0.

An anti-circumvention inquiry launched by the Commerce Department failed to name mandatory respondents or seek more than minimal information from exporters, a number of lumber importers and exporters of hardwood plywood from Vietnam said Feb. 1 in support of a motion for summary judgment (Shelter Forest International Acquisition v. U.S., CIT # 23-00144).

The Senate on Feb. 1 voted 53-42 to confirm Lisa Wang to serve as a judge on the Court of International Trade.

Chinese printer cartridge exporter Ninetsar Corp. filed its motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade on Jan. 22 against its placement on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List. Made public Jan. 31, the brief emphasizes arguments already made in support of its motion for a preliminary injunction (see 2312180057) (Ninestar Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00182).

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Jan. 26 declined to dismiss a False Claims Act suit from a whistleblower that alleges her employer misclassified footwear to avoid tariffs. Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger said the fact none of the defendants served as the importer of record for the allegedly undervalued footwear imports is irrelevant for purposes of establishing liability under the FCA (United States ex rel. Devin Taylor v. GMI USA Corp., S.D.N.Y. # 16-7216).

The Court of International Trade on Jan. 31 remanded for a third time the Commerce Department's use of Mexican wage data to calculate surrogate labor costs in the antidumping duty investigation on beer kegs from China. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce abused its discretion in rejecting Brazilian data, favored by petitioner American Keg, and continuing to use Mexican International Labour Organization data.

Texas company Kubota North America was ordered Jan. 25 to pay $2 million for falsely labeling replacement parts for tractors, mowers, utility vehicles, and construction and agricultural equipment as having been made in the U.S. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas entered a stipulated judgment against the company, which included the penalty and compliance reporting and record-keeping requirements for the next 20 years (U.S. v. Kubota North America Corp., N.D. Tex. # 3:24-00159).