The Court of International Trade on June 7 upheld the Commerce Department's first antidumping duty administrative review on aluminum foil from China. Judge M. Miller Baker sustained Commerce's classification of surrogate values for aluminum dross/ash byproduct and rolling oil and rolling oil additive inputs, along with the agency's selection of Maersk data to calculate freight costs. The judge also upheld Commerce's decision not to grant a double remedies adjustment for subsidies to inputs that respondent Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co. said were countervailable. Lastly, Baker rejected Zhongji's bid to have Commerce modify its liquidation instructions to include the phrase "resold or imported."
The Court of International Trade on June 7 remanded the Commerce Department's antidumping investigation on raw honey from Argentina. CIT Judge Claire Kelly remanded the department's decision to use Nexco's acquisition costs as a proxy for Argentinian beekeeper's production costs and its decision to compare Nexco's third-country sales and U.S. sales. However, the court did agree with Commerce's decision to compare Nexco's costs on a monthly basis for the purposes of the sales-below cost test and sustained that aspect, saying that Commerce reasonably explained its decision.
The Court of International Trade remanded parts and upheld parts of the Commerce Department's antidumping duty investigation on metal lockers from China. Judge Mark Barnett sent back the investigation so that Commerce can reconsider its treatment of surrogate company Ayes Celikhasir's "incentive income," "shipping revenues," "rental income" and "interest income" when calculating surrogate financial ratios. The judge sustained Commerce's treatment of certain other real operating income categories. Barnett also upheld the agency's determination that Ayes made comparable merchandise with the goods under investigation while plaintiff List Industries' preferred surrogate company, Grupo Carso, did not.
The Court of International Trade upheld parts and sent back parts of CBP's classification of importer Nature's Touch Frozen Foods' 14 different mixtures of frozen fruit, five of which have frozen vegetable ingredients. Judge Stephen Vaden said the merchandise is properly classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule heading 0811 since the term "Fruit ... frozen" describes these goods in whole. However, this term does not cover the five mixture types with vegetable ingredients, though the judge added that Nature's Touch's preferred heading, 2106, does not fit either. Vaden ultimately found that the goods are properly classified under subheading 0811.90.80, dutiable at 14.5%, despite both parties' objections that this subheading excludes mixtures.
The Commerce Department legally found that Chinese respondents in an antidumping investigation and review failed to rebut the presumption of de facto government control, the Court of International Trade ruled in a pair of opinions. In a suit contesting the 2015-16 review of the AD order on off-the-road tires from China, Judge Timothy Stanceu said Guizhou Tyre did not rebut the presumption of Chinese state control of the company's export functions, failing its bid for a separate rate. In a case on the AD investigation on truck and bus tires from China, Stanceu ruled that Guizhou Tyre and Double Coin both failed to rebut the presumption of government control of their export functions.
The Court of International Trade sent back parts and upheld parts of the Commerce Department's final results in the seventh administrative review of the antidumping duty order on multilayered wood flooring from China. Judge Richard Eaton remanded Commerce's surrogate financial ratio calculation for manufacturing overhead and the agency's surrogate value for labor while upholding the surrogate value determination for glue. The judge ruled Commerce engaged in mere speculation by finding that using the indirect production expenses data from a Romanian company's financial statement could be distortive in the overhead calculation. Eaton also found that there was "no source at all" for Commerce's use of 24 working days per month as part of its surrogate labor value calculation.
A company unable to prove it has any entries for the purposes of obtaining a separate rate should not automatically be found to have no shipments and be rescinded from the review, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in a May 19 opinion. Though the appellate court found the government's claim that it is not required to rescind a review for a company with no entries unconvincing, Judges Timothy Dyk, Richard Linn and Raymond Chen said that Ninhbo Qixin did not clear the bar for establishing no shipments, even though Commerce had rejected a separate rate for the company because it couldn't verify any entries.
The Court of International Trade on May 18 upheld the Commerce Department's denial of separate rate status to Chinese exporters Guizhou Tyre Import and Export (GTC) and Aeolus Tyre and the agency's assignment of the "China-wide" AD rate of 105.31% in an antidumping review on off-road tires from China. Judge Timothy Stanceu ruled that Commerce's methodology "exists apart from the provisions in the Tariff Act and regulations," and there was no statutory language, legislative history or regulatory language to lead the court to conclude that Commerce's methodology was unreasonable. The court also recognized Commerce's discretion to "draw reasonable inferences" from evidence on the record, the judge said.
The Commerce Department legally found that exporter Double Coin Holdings failed to rebut the presumption of government control when it levied a 105.31% China-wide rate in the fifth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on off-the-road tires from China, the Court of International Trade ruled. Judge Timothy Stanceu said that absent a statute or regulation governing the presumption of government control in AD cases, "the court lacks a basis to conclude that Commerce acted contrary to law in exercising its broad discretion" by centering its analysis on how Double Coin's government-owned majority shareholder influences the selection and supervision of management.
The Court of International Trade ruled that Turkish exporter Erdemir failed to show the court should revisit its past order allowing four U.S. steel companies to intervene in a case on the International Trade Commission's injury determination on imports of hot-rolled steel from Turkey. Judge Timothy Reif said the four companies make arguments that share a common question of law or fact with the case's main action, would be adversely affected if the court were to rule in Erdemir's favor and would not unduly delay the adjudication of the original parties' rights. However, Reif continued to deny U.S. Steel Corp.'s right to intervene, finding the company did not explain how it would be adversely affected by the decision.