CIT Says Korea's Port Usage Rights for Hyundai Constitute Countervailable Benefit
The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 21 opinion upheld the Commerce Department's remand results in the 2018 review of the countervailing duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from South Korea. Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves ruled that Commerce legally found the provision of port usage rights at the Port of Incheon to respondent Hyundai Steel Co. to be a countervailable benefit and found the reduction for sewerage fees program was not countervailable.
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The judge said Commerce reasonably decided to conduct a revenue foregone analysis regarding the port usage instead of a less than adequate remuneration analysis because Hyundai's nonpayment of port usage fees involved a type of financial contribution from foregone revenue when the Korean government gave the company the right to collect revenue from third parties. The judge said the provision of rights under this program conferred a benefit to Hyundai.