Commerce Should Apply Critical Circumstances Seasonality Finding for R-125 Across Industry, Importer Says

The Commerce Department wrongly applied a seasonality finding to one company, rather than an entire industry, when it retroactively suspended liquidation for many companies at the preliminary stage of the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on pentafluoroethane (R-125) from China, A-Gas Americas said in a brief filed with the Commerce Department Oct. 19.

In a preliminary AD duty determination issued in August and a separate finding issued in its CV duty investigation in July, the agency found critical circumstances exist for all non-individually investigated respondents to its AD/CVD investigations on R-125. On the other hand, Commerce did not order retroactive suspension of liquidation for Sanmei, the lone individually reviewed respondent, based on information the company submitted that imports of R-125 are seasonal, ramping up in the early months of the year -- the period examined by Commerce for critical circumstances -- to meet summer’s demand.

“Record evidence supports only a finding of seasonality for the R-125 market,” A-Gas said in the brief. “No evidence indicates that seasonality is limited to a single respondent. Further, the petitioner effectively conceded seasonality by failing to produce any contrary evidence for the administrative record in the AD and CVD proceedings,” the brief said. “No record evidence supports the Department’s failure to apply general information about the R-125 market to all respondent parties in the context of the critical circumstances analysis.”