The U.S. Court of International Trade today affirmed the U.S. Department of Commerce’s most recent redetermination in longstanding litigation over steel nails from China imported by Target as part of tool kits. Commerce had in January informed the CIT that it would “under respectful protest” treat such nails as subject to antidumping duties. Since 2010, Commerce had maintained that such nails are outside of the scope of the antidumping duty order. That position, however, was successfully challenged by PKR’s client, Mid Continent Nail Corporation – the largest producer of steel nails in the United States. After two earlier CIT decisions in favor of Mid Continent,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 2013 ruled that Commerce could only exclude tool kit nails by overcoming the presumption that such nails were covered by the antidumping duty order using information publically available when the order was issued. Although Commerce thereafter continued excluding the tool kit nails, the CIT last year found that Commerce failed to comply with the CAFC’s instructions and ordered a fourth remand. The CIT today – over Target’s objections – accepts Commerce’s redetermination to treat the tool kit nails as subject to antidumping duties. You may read today’s CIT decision here.
