Steel Keg Producer Supports Use of Brazilian Labor Data After Remand

A petitioner supported the Commerce Department’s decision, on remand, to use Brazilian rather than Mexican labor cost data in its calculation of the antidumping duty margins for two exporters of steel kegs from China (see 2407240018) (New American Keg v. U.S., CIT # 20-00008).

The department did so after Court of International Trade Judge M. Miller Baker ruled that it had violated its discretion by reopening the record to use the Mexican data, finding that there was no reason to believe the Brazilian data was “inaccurate or otherwise unsuitable” (see 2209210039).

Petitioner New American Keg said that the plaintiffs, led by exporter Ningbo Master International Trade, failed to exhaust their argument that Brazil doesn’t produce comparable merchandise. The exporter had the chance when New American Keg pushed use of the Brazilian labor data during the administrative proceeding, but it didn’t, the petitioner said; nor did it do more than mention the issue when commenting on the department's first draft remand, New American Keg said.

It said Ningbo Master also disregards “this Court’s jurisprudence and Commerce’s practice,” neither of which require use of data for identical merchandise in investigations.