Italy Pasta: AD/CVD Scope Exclusion for Egg White Pasta Measured Dry, Not as Dough, Commerce Says
The exclusion from antidumping and countervailing duties for egg pastas only applies when the egg makes up 2 percent of the pasta’s weight in dry form, said the Commerce Department in a scope ruling that included Valdigrano’s product under the scope of the AD/CV duty orders on pasta from Italy (A-475-818 / C-475-819).
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Valdigrano’s pasta is made from a dough that contains 2.5 percent egg white. But when the dough is dried to make the pasta, the egg white makes up less than 2 percent of the pasta’s weight. The AD/CVD scope for pasta from Italy excludes egg pasta, but does not exclude “non-egg dry pasta containing up to 2 percent egg white.”
Valdigrano argued that the scope language is unclear as to whether the scope means the weight of egg whites should be measured at the dough stage or after the pasta has been dried. As such, Commerce should take up a full scope inquiry, it said. And the ITC report associated with the investigation, which would be one of the factors examined in a scope inquiry, points to exclusion, Valdigrano said.
But Commerce said the scope is clear in requiring egg white content measurement when dry, and not in dough form, because part of the scope clearly references dry pasta. Commerce said it doesn’t examine other factors if the scope language is unambiguous, a practice reinforced by the Court of International Trade’s September 2012 ruling in ArcelorMittal v. U.S. (see 12091702).
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of this scope ruling.