Chinese Exporter Challenges Commerce's Scope Ruling on Steel Wheels at CIT
The Commerce Department erred in finding that exporter Asia Wheel Co.'s trailer wheels are within the scope of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on steel wheels 12 to 16.5 inches in diameter from China, the company said in a June 8 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Asia Wheel Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00096).
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The orders expressly includes wheels that have been further processed in a third country, including the welding and painting of rims and discs from China to form a steel wheel. Asia Wheel claimed that because its products use only Chinese-origin rims or Chinese-origin discs, but not both, and are made in Thailand, the agency illegally expanded the scope of the orders to include its trailer wheels.
Asia Wheel asked for the scope ruling as part of an Enforce and Protect Act investigation into its products. As part of the scope ruling proceeding, the exporter clarified that it has three different types of production methods it uses for its products. The first makes the wheels by welding Thai-made rims to Chinese-sourced discs. The second process sees the firm weld Thai-made rims and Thai-made discs, while the third has the company weld Thai-made discs to Chinese-sourced rims. In the scope ruling, Commerce said the wheels made through the first and third processes are covered by the orders but that the goods made by the second process are exempt.
The crux of Asia Wheel's claim is that the scope language exempts trailer wheels made in a third country with only one part (rim or disc) originating from China. The exporter also claimed that the agency's "substantial transofrmation" analysis is "fundamentally flawed" since Commerce "disregarded the finished products -- trailer wheels -- imported into the United States."