CIT Remands Selection of India as Surrogate Country in 2009-10 China PET Film AD Admin Review

The Court of International Trade remanded the International Trade Administration’s decision to use India as the surrogate country to value respondents’ inputs in the 2009-10 administrative review of polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet and strip from China (A-570-924). The ITA used World Bank data from 2008 to find India an economically comparable country eligible for selection, when domestic parties had placed 2009 World Bank data on the record. The 2009 data coincided with part of the period of review, and was relied upon by the ITA in another review that did not find India to be economically comparable to China. Importantly, the ITA had already formulated its list of comparable candidate countries by the time the 2009 data was placed on the record, but had not made its final surrogate country selection. The court ordered the ITA to either explain its decision to use the 2008 data, or use the 2009 data to select a surrogate country. CIT also sustained the use of an Indian company’s financial statements to calculate surrogate financial ratios.