CIT Sustains China Honey No Critical Circumstances Finding After Decade-Long Fight

After a decade of seesawing Commerce Department remand determinations on the issue, the Court of International Trade sustained the agency’s finding that critical circumstances did not exist for the 2001 antidumping duty investigation on honey from China (A-570-863). Commerce had originally found critical circumstances, which meant entries of subject merchandise from up to 90 days before the investigation’s preliminary decision were subject to AD duties. But a series of CIT and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rulings took issue with Commerce’s findings, given the requirement that importers had to know the honey was being dumped for critical circumstances to exist. Honey from China had been subject to a suspension agreement that set minimum reference prices during the period of investigation, so it couldn’t be inferred that the importers knew dumping was taking place, the courts had said. In the end, the court agreed with Commerce that record evidence didn’t really show importer knowledge of dumping, given the appeals court’s rulings.