CIT Sustains AD/CVD Circumvention Findings on 3 Solar Cell Exporters

The Court of International Trade on May 16 issued a pair of decisions sustaining the Commerce Department's circumvention determinations on solar cells made by Trina Solar Science & Technology, Canadian Solar International and BYD. On the findings that Trina and Canadian Solar circumvented the AD/CVD orders on Chinese solar cells via Thailand, Judge M. Miller Baker said Commerce permissibly placed dispositive weight on the amount invested into research and development in the companies' Thailand facilities to show that the operations in these facilities were "minor or insignificant." Baker also sustained the agency's finding that BYD circumvented the orders via Cambodia, similarly upholding Commerce's reliance on the level of R&D into BYD's Cambodia facilities.