Antidumping respondent Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group continued to argue that assigning it the China-wide entity rate is an unfair application of adverse facts available in Dec. 16 comments on the Commerce Department's remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade. Notably, though, Jinqiao Flooring did not mention a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion that found that China-wide rates can still be based on AFA even if no members of the countrywide entity were found to be uncooperative. Nevertheless, the company claimed it should be granted a separate dumping rate and that substantial evidence does not back Commerce's contention that it is de facto controlled by the Chinese government (Jilin Forest Industry Jinqiao Flooring Group v. U.S., CIT #18-00191).
Court of International Trade activity
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
Antidumping petitioner Wheatland Tube Company is appealing an October Court of International Trade opinion sustaining the Commerce Department's decision to drop a particular market situation adjustment from the sales-below-cost test. According to a Dec. 17 notice of appeal, Wheatland Tube will take the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The case concerns the 2016-17 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on circular welded non-alloy steel pipe from South Korea. The trade court originally found that the statute does not permit a PMS adjustment to a respondent's cost of production in the sales-below-cost test (see 2110190054). This interpretation was recently upheld by the Federal Circuit, which found that such an adjustment is only permitted when calculating constructed value (see 2112100039) (Husteel Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT Consol. #19-00107).
The Commerce Department properly fixed an error in its liquidation instructions, the Court of International Trade said in a Dec. 17 opinion sustaining the agency's remand results in an antidumping review. Fixing the name of one of the mandatory respondents that received its own rate in the review, Commerce's remand allowed the respondent -- Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. -- to receive the proper rate on its entries.
Although the Commerce Department could get a more accurate dumping rate for the non-individually examined respondents in antidumping reviews by selecting more mandatory respondents, it has no legal requirement to do so, the Court of International Trade said in a Dec. 17 opinion. Sustaining Commerce's remand results, Judge Richard Eaton said that the agency properly excluded one of the two mandatory respondents' zero percent dumping rate and merely applied the other respondent's rate to all others in the review. The court also upheld Commerce's selection of surrogate data in the face of the plaintiffs' challenge.
The Court of International Trade sustained on Dec. 20 the Commerce Department's final results in the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel concrete reinforcing bar from Mexico in which plaintiff Deacero served as a mandatory respondent. The court held, as it has done before, that Commerce can deduct Section 232 steel and aluminum duties from Daecero's U.S. price because they can be treated as U.S. import duties. Further, Judge Jane Restani said Commerce did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act by not notifying Daecero of its decision to deduct the Section 232 duties. Since AD procedures are fact-based, investigative activities, they are not beholden to notice-and-comment procedures, she said.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 17 sustained the Commerce Department's final results in the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on freshwater crawfish tail meat from China, covering entries in 2017-2018. Judge Richard Eaton said that, while Commerce could get a more accurate "all-others rate" by tapping more than two mandatory respondents, its decision to only have two and only use one of their rates when establishing the all-others rate was not illegal. The judge also held that Commerce's valuation of the mandatory respondents' live freshwater crawfish factors of production under EU tariff subheading 0306.30.10, providing for live, fresh or chilled freshwater crawfish, is backed by substantial evidence.
The Court of International Trade on Dec. 17 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel from Japan. Mandatory respondent Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. and its importer, Optima Steel International, brought the case to challenge Commerce's liquidation instructions, which included the wrong name for Tokyo Steel, resulting in an improper liquidation since the company had its own rate in the review. Commerce requested the remand to fix the error.
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department dropped its particular market situation adjustment to two antidumping respondent's cost of production in the sales-below-cost test in Dec. 15 remand results submitted to the Court of International Trade. If sustained, the result would cause the dumping rates for the respondents -- HiSteel Co. and Kukje Steel Co. -- to drop to 9.90% and 1.91%, respectively. The move by Commerce is one many in response to prior CIT opinions finding it illegal to make a PMS adjustment to the COP in a sales-below-cost test. Most recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld this principle in a precedential opinion (see 2112100039) (HiSteel Co., Ltd., et al. v. United States, CIT #20-00146).