Curtis Trade Team Prevails in Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Decision

On Wednesday, June 15, 2022, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) rendered its decision that gave Curtis client Shelter Forest a complete victory in its court appeal to overturn the Commerce Department’s initial affirmative circumvention decision in Shelter Forest International Acquisition, Inc. v. US. The Federal Circuit accepted the Curtis Team’s arguments that the U.S. industry’s attempt to challenge the Trade Court’s decision had no merit. And so, with this decision today, this case has concluded and Shelter Forest can resume its U.S. sales of imported radiata pine plywood without concern of having to pay AD-CVD duties.

Curtis partner Daniel Porter said that “Shelter Forest is very pleased that the Federal Circuit agreed with the conclusion that Shelter Forest did not circumvent any AD-CVD duties.”

The Federal Circuit’s decision today affirmed the Court of International Trade’s (“Trade Court”) decision that, effectively, required the U.S. Commerce Department to reconsider its initial affirmative circumvention decision. Because of Curtis’ initial court appeal to the Trade Court, the case was sent back to the Commerce Department with the obligation to accept additional documentation and evidence from Shelter Forest. Upon receiving this additional Shelter Forest documentation and evidence, the Commerce Department concluded that the circumvention criteria had not been satisfied, and therefore it was appropriate to render a negative circumvention determination. The Trade Court then affirmed this new negative circumvention determination.

The Curtis team was led by Dan Porter and Jim Durling and assisted by James Beaty and Katherine Afzal.

Read the full article by Law360