The Court of International Trade, in an April 4 opinion made public April 12, sustained parts and sent back parts of the Commerce Department's final results in the 2017-2018 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China. Judge Claire Kelly upheld Commerce's pick of Malaysia as the primary surrogate country and the calculation of surrogate financial ratios. However, the judge remanded Commerce's decision to value silver paste using Malaysian import data, valuation of mandatory respondent Risen's ethyl vinyl acetate and backsheet, use of partial adverse facts available to value missing factor of production data and calculation of the separate rate.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 11 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The Commerce Department's use of adverse facts available over antidumping duty respondent Euro SME's reporting of certain U.S. inland freight data was illegal, Euro said in an April 7 complaint at the Court of International Trade. The respondent filed the case to contest Commerce's final results in the 2019-2020 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on polyethylene retail carrier bags from Malaysia. Euro further challenged Commerce's decision to give only a partial credit for revenue associated with its U.S. movement expenses and the use of partial AFA over the reporting of certain home market freight data (Euro SME SDN Bhd v. U.S., CIT #22-00108).
The Commerce Department found on remand that antidumping duty respondent Power Steel Co. did not pay Section 232 duties on two entries of steel concrete rebar, dropping the duties paid as part of the exporter's sales price used to establish its base export price in an antidumping duty administrative review. Submitting its remand results to the Court of International Trade on April 8, Commerce lowered Power Steel's dumping margin from 3.27% to 0.01%, locking in a finding that Power Steel did not make sales at less than normal value (Power Steel Co., Ltd. v. United States, CIT #20-03771).
The Commerce Department granted a level-of-trade (LOT) adjustment for antidumping duty respondent Productos Laminados de Monterrey (Prolamsa) on remand at the Court of International Trade, reversing course from its previous position. Finding that the totality of evidence supports the position that Prolamsa made sales at two levels of trade, Commerce dropped Prolamsa's dumping rate from 7.47% to 0.89% (Productos Laminados de Monterrey S.A. de C.V. v. U.S., CIT #20-00166).
AA Metals Engaged in evasion of antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on aluminum sheet from China by purchasing re-rolled sheet from Turkey, CBP said in a final determination dated March 21. The investigation, initiated in June 2020, followed a March 2020 allegation by Texarkana Aluminum that AA Metals was importing Chinese-origin aluminum sheet re-rolled by two Turkish companies, Teknik and PMS.
The Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission published the following Federal Register notices April 8 on AD/CVD proceedings:
The following lawsuits were recently filed at the Court of International Trade:
The Commerce Department erred in using an allocation method for Thai exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container's (SMPC) certification expenses that covered the whole period of review, SMPC said in an April 6 complaint at the Court of International Trade. By doing so, Commerce violated its own practice of using the most detailed transaction-specific expense data and distorted the data, the exporter said (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. U.S., CIT #22-00107).
Arguments from antidumping plaintiffs, led by Wilmar Trading, looking to invoke a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion on whether a particular market situation exists "significantly overstates" the case's relevance, DOJ said in an April 7 reply brief (Wilmar Trading PTE v. United States, CIT Consol. #18-00121).