ITC Erred by Not Cumulating Cut-to-Length Steel Plates From Brazil in AD/CVD Review, Producer Says

The International Trade Commission incorrectly found that imports of cut-to-length plate from Brazil did not threaten domestic producers, in its five-year reviews of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length plate, domestic producer Cleveland-Cliffs said in a March 31 complaint filed at the Court of International Trade (Cleveland-Cliffs v. U.S., CIT # 23-00050).

The ITC incorrectly decided not to cumulate imports from Brazil with those from other investigated countries that were found to threaten domestic industry. The ITC unfairly based its decision on its finding that the quota on Brazilian imports under Section 232 was unlikely to be relaxed in the foreseeable future, Cleveland-Cliffs said. "By focusing so heavily on the likely volume of the Brazilian imports in its cumulation analysis," the commission engaged in a “circular” injury analysis the court has found impermissible in similar cases, Cleveland-Cliffs said.

The company argued that it and other domestic producers demonstrated during the investigation that imports from Brazil would compete under the same conditions "as other subject imports and the domestic like product." Imports from all 12 countries, including Brazil, should have been cumulated, and the commission should have found that those imports would cause material injury to the domestic industry if the orders were ever revoked, Cleveland-Cliffs argued.

Cleveland-Cliffs cited the ITC's history of not relying on Section 232 quotas "as a basis for exercising its discretion not to cumulate the subject imports," and said the commission failed to address why it departed from its standard practice.