CAFC Upholds Use of AFA Over Failure to Report FOP Data on CONNUM-Specific Basis

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a Sept. 23 opinion held that the Commerce Department properly used total adverse facts available over antidumping respondent Shanxi Pioneer Hardware Industrial's failure to report all its factors of production data on a control number-specific basis. Judges Kimberly Moore, Pauline Newman and Kara Stoll ruled that the CONNUM-specific reporting requirement is an interpretive rule and not a legislative one requiring a notice-and-comment period, and that Pioneer failed to cooperate to the best of its ability by not maintaining adequate records and not developing a proper reporting methodology.