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).
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 U.S. argued Nov. 15 that an importer of Chinese-origin countertops had waived its challenge to CBP’s practice of initiating Enforce and Protect Act inquiries based on the agency’s “date of receipt” of a petition (Superior Commercial Solutions v. United States, CIT # 24-00052).
The U.S. and an importer reached a settlement in a 2021 classification dispute regarding Chinese-origin light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Under the deal, the importer’s lights won't be subject to Section 232 tariffs, with a 25% additional duty, but will be subject to Section 301 tariffs (Super Bright LEDs v. U.S., CIT # 21-00099).
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 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).
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).
Deficiency notices are only required when the Commerce Department has decided to reject a submission and apply adverse facts available, the government said in oral argument in a case regarding the department’s alleged erroneous failure to apply a constructed export price (CEP) offset to two South Korean steel manufacturers (Wheatland Tube v. U.S., CIT # 22-00160).
In short remand results released Nov. 14, the Commerce Department said it was removing the 5.46% Export Buyers' Credit Program rate from a solar cell exporter’s countervailing duty (Risen Energy Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00153).
The Court of International Trade sustained 162 requests for Section 232 steel tariff exclusions submitted by importer California Steel Industries in a confidential decision, though the court remanded 31 separate exclusion denials. Judge M. Miller Baker said that should the Commerce Department grant any of the 31 remanded exclusion requests, it shall tell CBP "to honor them" by extending the exclusions to "otherwise-eligible entries" that had not finally liquidated by the fifth business day after the original exclusion request denials (California Steel Industries v. United States, CIT # 21-00015).