The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) has upheld the Department of Commerce’s (“Commerce”) imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties for certain tires from China, as well as the Court of International Trade’s (“CIT”) decision on the same matter.  The decision also recited the lengthy procedural history involved in the GPX case.  Previously Commerce had maintained that it could not impose countervailing duties on non-market economies (“NME”), such as China, because of the difficulty in calculating countervailing subsidies in those countries.  Commerce changed this position on November 20, 2006 regarding countervailing duties to imports from China.  As a result, on June 18, 2007, domestic tire manufactures petitioned Commerce to impose both antidumping and countervailing duties on certain Chinese tires.  Commerce later imposed countervailing duties and GPX filed suit with the CIT on September 9, 2008.  After several years of litigation at both the CIT and CAFC, Congress created an act to impose countervailing duties on non-market economies.  In sum, the most recent CAFC decision held that Congress’ Act did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause or the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution because it was rationally related to the government’s interest in remedying unfair foreign trade practices and was not a penalty.  You can read the full opinion here.