Commerce Excludes Exporter's Blanched Garlic From AD Order on Fresh Garlic on Remand
The Commerce Department excluded exporter Export Packers Company's individually quick frozen cooked garlic cloves from the scope of the antidumping duty order on fresh garlic from China on remand at the Court of International Trade. Submitting its remand results on Dec. 9 under protest, Commerce said that while it disagrees with the trade court's reasoning for remanding the case, it's respecting the court's ruling and following "the Court's logic, under protest, to its natural conclusion" and excluding the company's products from the AD order (Export Packers Company v. United States, CIT # 24-00061).
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Export Packers' garlic products consist of individually quick frozen cooked garlic cloves that are immersed in boiling or near-boiling water for 90 seconds. The AD order says it explicitly doesn't cover garlic "prepared" by "heat processing." The agency initially said the cooked garlic cloves have "certain physical characteristics that differ from the completely uncooked merchandise but are not considered 'prepared' by 'heat processing'" and thus fall within the AD order.
CIT Judge Jane Restani rejected Commerce's scope ruling, finding that the agency's reliance on two prior scope rulings, that involved "blanched, not cooked garlic," to find Export Packers' cloves are within the scope of the order wasn't supported by substantial evidence. The judge instead turned to export reports submitted by Export Packers to find the goods at issue have “certain different characteristics due to a heating element,” suggesting “heat processing.” However, Commerce noted in its remand that it didn't analyze the expert reports in its final scope ruling.
With this background, Restani said Commerce failed to establish that "cooking is not heat processing" and remanded the ruling.
On remand, the agency said that while it "respectfully disagrees with the Court's holdings," it's determining that Export Packers' cooked garlic cloves aren't covered by the order. Since the court found the subject goods are "heat processed," per the "plain language of the scope, we must find that the inquiry merchandise is therefore excluded from the scope of the Order," the agency said.