CIT Denies Taiwan Solar Products Exporter Chance for Lower AD Rate After It Missed Filing Deadline

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 1 denied a Taiwanese exporter the chance to get a lower antidumping duty rate through an administrative review on solar products from Taiwan (here). Neo Solar Power had filed its request to participate in the review on March 3, 2016, several days after the deadline for requests for review on Feb. 29. It said the Commerce Department’s ACCESS system was down on Feb. 29, and a Taiwanese holiday that day meant it couldn’t mail a physical copy of the petition until March 3. Commerce said Neo Solar missed the deadline and declined to review the company, leaving it subject to the 19.5% all others rate. Neo Solar said the system outage and holiday were “extraordinary circumstances” and Commerce should give it a break. But CIT ruled that Neo Solar did not demonstrate that the system was out all day on Feb. 29, nor did its lawyer call the ACCESS help desk when it opened at 9:30 p.m. Taiwan time. The holiday was not unforeseen, so it wasn’t an extraordinary circumstance either, CIT ruled.