US Backs Use of Financial Statements to Calculate Nail Exporter's Constructed Value Profit

The Commerce Department reasonably used exporter San Shing Fastech Corp.'s financial statements to calculate constructed value profit and selling expenses for respondent Your Standing International in the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from Taiwan, the U.S. argued in a response to Your Standing's motion for judgment (Your Standing International v. United States, CIT # 24-00055).

Your Standing made two arguments against the use of San Shing's statements, the first of which was that San Shing's sales don't represent sales in the Taiwanese market since the U.S. is San Shing's largest market (see 2408270046). In response, the U.S. said this claim "lacks merit."

Commerce said in the review that the record didn't show that San Shing's sales were either predominantly or exclusively U.S. sales because, although the U.S. was the largest individually identified market, over 70% of San Shing's sales to non-affiliated entities were to markets outside the U.S.

Your Standing argued that since over 10% of San Shing's sales in 2022 were in Taiwan, this level renders it implausible to represent the company's constructed value. In response, the government said the exporter "offers no reason to think this one piece of sales data is conclusive, given the other evidence in the record and the other factors Commerce considered." For instance, Commerce looked at information on San Shing's website, "which showed the similarity in San Shing’s business operations and products as a Taiwanese producer of fastener products," along with other parts of San Shing's statement, which showed that over 80% of its sales revenue was from fasteners, the brief said.

The government added that Your Standing gave no authority that requires Commerce to pick financial statements with only a certain percentage of home market sales or to exclude financial statements just because the company made non-home market sales. "We are unaware of any such brightline requirements," the brief said.

Your Standing also argued that San Shing's sales don't represent sales in the Taiwanese market because Your Standing and San Shing don't have similar customer bases. The government said this claim is not properly before the trade court, because it wasn't raised administratively.