CAFC Sustains Denial of Separate AD Rate Applications for 3 Chinese Tire Exporters

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a pair of decisions on April 28 upheld the Commerce Department's separate antidumping duty rate decisions in the 2012-13 and 2014-15 reviews of the AD order on new pneumatic off-the-road tires. Judges Richard Taranto, Raymond Clevenger and Todd Hughes held that the companies' claims regarding whether Commerce could "deem decisive an exporter’s failure to establish lack of state control of management selection," without more proof of state control over export activities, were precluded by the court's recent decision in Pirelli Tyre Co. v. U.S. In Pirelli, the court directly answered this question and said the agency could consider state control of management selection without tying it to export activities. The judges then turned to the record and said Commerce's decision to reject the separate rate bids for all three companies was backed by substantial evidence.