The International Trade Commission failed to support its "central" underselling analysis as part of the injury investigation on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Sept. 19 opinion. Judge Stephen Vaden said that since the commission's underselling theory "undergirds" the remaining statutory considerations in the proceeding -- volume, price and impact -- the ITC must revisit its findings on these factors as well should it continue to find that the imports were undersold. The underselling theory "contaminat[ed]" these remaining findings, the opinion said.

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 19 opinion said the Commerce Department properly allowed respondent Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. to supplement its questionnaire response on remand by providing additional information pertaining to service-related revenues and expenses. Judge Mark Barnett said the supplement was permitted pursuant to a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision, which said that Hyundai should have been given the chance to supplement the record and that Commerce's use of partial adverse facts available was "unsupported by substantial evidence."

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Marble importer Stoneline Group filed suit in a New York federal court against Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. for breach of contract regarding an insurance policy covering a large shipment of tumbled beige marble stone from Turkey. Filing a complaint on Sept. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Stoneline said Liberty owes it nearly $6.2 million for all the costs it incurred shipping the goods from Turkey to Florida, then re-exporting the products to the Dominican Republic after it found the shipment was contaminated with pests (Stoneline Group v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., S.D.N.Y. #23-08115).

The Commerce Department erred when it found that canvas banner matisse imported by Berger Textiles was subject to the antidumping duty order on certain artists' canvas from China was in error, said Berger in a Sept. 15 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Berger asked the court to find that the matisse is expressly outside the scope of the orders and to remand the issue back to Commerce (Berger Textiles v. U.S., CIT # 23-00192).

The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 14 opinion upheld parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's countervailing duty investigation on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade asked the Commerce Department to conduct a review of the country's status as a non-market economy, telling the agency that the nation's "achievements in market opening and integration into the regional and global economy" stand as grounds for review. Seeking to build on the back of the 2013 comprehensive partnership agreement between the U.S. and Vietnam, the ministry asked for a changed circumstances review of its NME status.

The Commerce Department must consider evidence on remand regarding the control antidumping duty respondent Shanghai Tainai could have exerted over its suppliers before the agency hits the company with partial adverse facts available, the Court of International Trade ruled. Issuing the Sept. 14 opinion in a case on the 2019-20 review of the AD order on tapered roller bearings from China, Judge Stephen Vaden said Commerce failed to consider the factors set by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in using AFA on a fully cooperative respondent that "lacks the ability to control its suppliers."

The Commerce Department properly used the Turkish lira to value exporter Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi's home-market sales as part of the 2018-19 review of the antidumping duty order on cold-rolled steel flat products from Turkey, the Court of International Trade ruled in a Sept. 14 opinion. Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce's use of the lira didn't violate its past practice or the established reasons underlying this practice.

The International Trade Commission's decision to find that freight rail couplers from China and Mexico injured the domestic industry was not backed by substantial evidence, given its finding in a separate, previously conducted investigation that the couplers just from China did not injure the U.S. industry, importer Wabtec Corp. argued in a Sept. 13 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Wabtec Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00157).