In China Wooden Bedroom Furniture, CIT Orders ITA to Explain or Alter Use of Low Wage Surrogates

In its last remand in the antidumping duty investigation of wooden bedroom furniture from China, on the calculation of labor rates to use in valuing non-market economy (NME) exports, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ordered the ITA to use data from countries that are both economically comparable to the producing NME country and that are significant producers of comparable merchandise. The ITA then offered an approach based only on countries with incomes lower than China’s, resulting in far lower labor rate values. In response, domestic producers challenged 1) the ITA’s narrow grouping of low-income countries to use for labor costs; 2) the exclusion of data not available during the investigation period, 3) the exclusion of certain Indian wage data, and 4) the reliance solely on industry-specific wage rates. The Court of International Trade upheld all the agency’s choices except the selection of only countries with lower average incomes than China’s, and ordered the ITA to explain or alter that approach in favor of a more “balanced” set of countries. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/12/10 news, 10051935, for BP summary of the preceding appeals court remand.) (Slip Op. 11-14, dated February 9, 2011)