On July 8, 2019, Petitioners Advanced Extrusion Inc. (“Advanced Extrusion”), Ex-Tech Plastics, Inc. (“Ex-Tech”), and Multi-Plastics Extrusions, Inc. (“Multi-Plastics”) filed a petition for the imposition of antidumping duties on imports of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Sheet from Korea, Mexico and Oman.

Court of International Trade

Summary of Decisions

19-66

On June 3, 2019, in the ongoing case of determining whether or not Plaintiff Midwest Fastener’s zinc and nylon anchor products are considered to be nails, the CIT sustained the Department of Commerce’s final results of the redetermination pursuant to the Court Remand. The CIT concluded that Plaintiff’s zinc and nylon anchors do not function like nails and are considered a separate type of product from nails by the relevant industry. Commerce’s remand results were sustained and Plaintiff Midwest Fastener’s products were excluded from the scope.

19-69

On June 6, the CIT denied Plaintiffs Confederacion de Asociaciones Agricolas del Estado de Sinaloa, Consejo Agricola de Baja California, Asociacion Mexicana de Horticultura Protegida, Asociacion de Productores de Hortalizas del Yaqui y Mayo, and Sistem Producto Tomate (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) motion for a temporary restraining order (“TRO”) and preliminary injunction (“PI”) in the antidumping duty investigation of tomatoes from Mexico. The Court determined that the Plaintiffs had not met their burden to establish the likelihood of success on the merits and irreparable harm absent injunctive relief. They also had failed to establish if the hardships tip in favor of denying the Plaintiff’s motion. The Court also found the public interest to be neutral. For those reasons the CIT denied the plaintiff’s motions.

U.S. International Trade Commission

Section 701/731 Proceedings

Investigations
  • Mattresses from the People’s Republic of China: On June 13, 2019, the ITC released the schedule for the final phase of the Antidumping Duty Investigation.
  • Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico: On June 14, 2019, the ITC announced the resumption of the final phase of the Antidumping Duty Investigation.
  • Stainless Steel Kegs from the People’s Republic of China, Germany, and Mexico: On June 17, 2019, the ITC released the schedule of the Final Phase of Countervailing and Antidumping Duty Investigations.
  • Glycine from the People’s Republic of China, India, Japan: On June 21, 2019, the ITC released the final determinations in the Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty investigations.
  • Aluminum Wire and Cable from the People’s Republic of China: On June 28, 2019, the ITC released the schedule for the final phase of the Countervailing Duty and Antidumping Duty Investigations.

Investigations

  • Certain Steel Nails from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: On June 19, 2019, Commerce released a notice of its Final Scope Ruling and notice of the Amended Final Scope Ruling in the Antidumping and Countervailing duty orders of the subject merchandise.
  • Steel Propane Cylinders: On June 21, 2019, Commerce announced its final determinations in the Antidumping Duty Investigations for the People’s Republic of China and Thailand.
  • Steel Propane Cylinders from the People’s Republic of China: On June 21, 2019, Commerce released the final affirmative Countervailing Duty determination.
  • Carbon Steel Butt-Weld Pipe Fittings from the People’s Republic of China: On June 21, 2019, Commerce issued the final affirmative determination of Circumvention of the Antidumping Duty Order.
  • Glycine from India and Japan: On June 21, 2019, Commerce released the amended final affirmative Antidumping Duty determination.  

India Loses GSP Preferential Status Effective June 5, 2019

In a sudden announcement after 8pm on Friday May 31, 2019, the President made the anticipated decision that India was to be removed from the Generalized System of Preferences (“GSP”), effective June 5, 2019. The statement issued by the White House claims that the President had “determined that India has not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets.” The end of the GSP eligibility and removal of India’s developing country status comes after holding that status for approximately 30 years and is a deepening indication of the U.S.’s increased protectionist stance in the global trade environment. To see our full post on India losing its GSP status, click here.

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced on June 19, 2019 an exclusion process for product exclusions from the tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products (“List 3”). The exclusion process will open at noon (EDT) on June 30, 2019.

The exclusion process for List 3 will be slightly different from the process involved for the List 1 and 2 exclusions. USTR is opening a portal at http://exclusions.USTR.gov/ for requestors to file exclusion requests and interested parties to comment on them. Among other information, the questions in the exclusion request form will require data on the company’s gross revenues, percentage of total gross sales for which the requested product accounted, and the amount of sourcing of the product from domestic or third-country suppliers.