The Court of International Trade, in a departure from a string of past rulings, said in a Sept. 13 opinion that the Commerce Department properly used adverse facts available over China's Export Buyer's Credit Program in a countervailing duty case. Judge M. Miller Baker ruled that Commerce "reasonably explained" why it needed key information from the Chinese government, which wasn't provided, to determine whether the CVD respondents and their U.S. customers used the EBCP. Otherwise, the attempt at verification "amounted to 'looking for a needle in a haystack with the added uncertainty that Commerce might not even be able to identify the needle when it was found,'" the judge said.
The World Trade Organization published the agenda for the Sept. 23 meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body. It includes U.S. status reports on the implementation of recommendations adopted by the DSB on antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; antidumping and countervailing measures on large residential washers from South Korea; certain methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China; and Section 110(5) of the U.S. Copyright Act. A status report also is expected from Indonesia on measures relating to the import of horticultural products, animals and animal products, and from the EU on measures affecting the approval and marketing of biotech products.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices Sept. 14 on AD/CVD proceedings:
CBP recently asked Commerce for a scope ruling in an Enforce and Protect Act investigation involving whether imports of rough fittings originated in China and processed in Vietnam prior are evading the antidumping duty order on carbon steel butt-weld pipe fittings from China (A-570-814), according to a recently released Sept. 6 notice.
Three importers evaded antidumping and countervailing duties on cast iron soil pipe from China (A-570-079/C-570-080), CBP said in a Sept. 6 Enforce and Protect Act determination released in recent days. In EAPA consolidated case 7621, CBP found that Granite Plumbing Products, Little Fireflies International and Phoenix Metal entered soil pipe from China covered by the antidumping and countervailing duty orders by transshipping through Cambodia.
The Court of International Trade in a Sept. 13 confidential order upheld parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's final determination in the antidumping duty investigation on refillable stainless steel kegs from China. In a letter, Judge M. Miller Baker said he intends to issue the public version of the opinion Sept. 21, giving the parties until Sept. 20 to review the confidential information in the opinion. In the case, Commerce dropped its reliance on Malaysian surrogate data after the trade court raised questions over the distortive effects of forced labor in Malaysia (see 2111050033). While the plaintiff, American Keg Co., signed off on this move, the plaintiff continued to oppose Commerce's surrogate data pick, pushing instead for Brazilian surrogate data (New American Keg d/b/a American Keg Co. v. U.S., CIT #20-00008).
The Commerce Department legally dropped its reliance on adverse facts available for whether countervailing duty respondent Both-Well (Taizhou) Steel Fittings Co. benefitted from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, the Court of International Trade held in a Sept. 13 opinion. Judge Claire Kelly previously sent back Commerce's use of adverse facts available over the Chinese government's unwillingness to submit certain information about its EBCP. The judge said that if the agency wanted to keep using AFA it had to attempt to verify the non-use of the program by looking at evidence from Both-Well and its U.S. customers. Commerce did so on remand, finding that the respondent did not benefit from the EBCP, dropping the company's CVD rate from 25.90% to 15.36%.
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The Commerce Department has the authority to address a particular market situation in an antidumping case when normal value is based on home market sales, AD petitioner Wheatland Tube argued in its Sept. 12 opening brief at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. The Federal Circuit should overturn the Court of International Trade's ruling, which found that Commerce acted illegally in relying on constructed value when it found that a PMS distorted the cost of production of the home market sales (Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1175).
The Court of International Trade upheld the Commerce Department's second remand results in the countervailing duty investigation into ripe olives from Spain. Judge Gary Katzmann in a Sept. 14 opinion ruled Commerce properly found that certain subsidy programs were de facto specific to Spanish olive growers. He also said Commerce reasonably found from consumption data that the demand for certain varietals of raw olives is "substantially dependent on the demand for table olives."