CIT Issues Trio of Opinions in Antidumping Cases

The Court of International Trade in a Dec. 21 opinion sent back the Commerce Department's fourth remand results in a case on the antidumping duty investigation of hardwood plywood from China. For the fifth time, Judge Jennifer Choe-Groves sent back Commerce's calculation of the all-others rate, which the agency determined by averaging a de minimis and an adverse facts available rate. The judge said "Commerce created its own problem" by selecting only two respondents, resulting in "sparse information" to back its assertions.

In another Dec. 21 opinion, Judge Gary Katzmann upheld Commerce's final determination in an antidumping investigation into wood mouldings and millwork products from China. The judge said the agency properly picked Brazil as the primary surrogate country, rejecting claims from plaintiff Fujian Yinfeng Imp & Exp Trading that "no reasonable mind might accept Brazil as the superior" surrogate country.

Finally, in a Dec. 13 opinion made public Dec. 21, Judge Claire Kelly upheld Commerce's remand results in the antidumping investigation on fabricated structural steel from Mexico. After Kelly remanded the case, Commerce stuck by its methodology used to calculate profit for the constructed value of respondent Building Systems de Mexico, also dropping the use of adverse facts available for one unreportable sale. The agency also used the date of substantial completion of a fabricated structural steel project as the date of sale rather than using the purchase order date or sales order acknowledgment date, and didn't exclude the operating results of the business unit in question from the calculation of the constructed export price profit rate.