Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee v. United States

145 F. Supp. 3d 1349, 2016 CIT 7, 37 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2712, 2016 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 6, 2016 WL 275300
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedJanuary 21, 2016
DocketSlip Op. 16-7; Court 13-00346
StatusPublished

This text of 145 F. Supp. 3d 1349 (Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of International Trade primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee v. United States, 145 F. Supp. 3d 1349, 2016 CIT 7, 37 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2712, 2016 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 6, 2016 WL 275300 (cit 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

Pogue, Senior Judge:

This action arises from the seventh administrative review by the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) of the antidumping duty order (“the order”) on certain frozen warmwater shrimp from the People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”). 1 In this seventh review, Com *1351 merce determined to revoke the order with respect to respondent Zhanjiang Regal Integrated Marine Resources Company, Limited (“Regal”). 2

Adjudicating appeals from Plaintiff Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee (“AHSTAC”) — an association of domestic warmwater shrimp producers that participated in this seventh review, 3 — this Court remanded Commerce’s determination to revoke the order as to Regal, ordering the agency to reconsider certain surrogate value data used to determine Regal's' normal value. 4 ' The agency’s Remand Results are now before the court. 5

The parties now raise two issues. First, Commerce protests an aspect of the court’s holding in ordering remand in AHSTAC /. 6 Second, AHSTAC challenges Commerce’s selection, in the Remand Results, of a certain surrogate value for one of the factors of production used to construct Regal’s normal value. 7

- The court has jurisdiction pursuant to Section 516A(a)(2)(B)(iii) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(a)(2)(B)(iii) (2012), 8 and 28 U.S.C. ' § 1581(c) (2012).

As explained below, Commerce’s rede-terminations on remand are supported by a reasonable reading of the record evidence, and are therefore sustained.

BACKGROUND

Antidumping duty orders are imposed on imported merchandise that is sold at prices below normal value (i.e., “dumped”), 9 “[Njormal value” is usually the price at which a foreign producer’s like products are sold in the exporting country or, for merchandise originating in non-market economies (“NMEs”), a value calculated using appropriate surrogate market economy data. 10 Such orders are regularly administratively reviewed by Commerce, such that the agency determines producer/exporter-specific dumping margins, covering discrete (typically one-year) time periods, by making contemporaneous normal value to export price comparisons. 11 Pursuant to a regulation in effect at the time of the administrative review at issue here, Commerce was authorized to revoke the order with respect to particular exporters/producers if Commerce found, inter alia, that such an exporter/producer had not “sold the merchandise at ... less than normal value for *1352 a period of at least ■ three consecutive years.” 12 Here, Regal requested company-specific revocation pursuant to this regulation. 13

By the time of Commerce’s decision regarding Regal’s request, Regal had been individually examined in the sixth and seventh reviews, and received zero percent dumping margins in. both proceedings. 14 Regal was not, however, individually examined in the fifth review; 15 rather, it was assigned a zero percent dumping margin based, on its individually-calculated zero percent rate in the previous (fourth) review. 16 Because Regal was not individually examined in the fifth review, Commerce, iñ the seventh review, requested from Regal information and sales data from the tune period covered by that fifth review, 17 “to cónfimi that Regal did riot dump [subject merchandise] during that time,” 18 and hence to confirm-that Regal did not dump for three consecutive years, as required for *1353 revocation eligibility under the regulation. 19

Because Commerce considers China to be a non-market economy, the agency generally calculates normal value for China-originating merchandise using “the value of the factors of production utilized in producing the merchandise,” including “an amount for general expenses and profit plus the cost of containers, coverings, and other expenses” (collectively, the “FOPs”), from a surrogate market economy country. 20

As this Court explained in AHSTAC I: Because Commerce’s selection of an appropriate surrogate market economy must be such that the chosen dataset provides the best available information for approximating the NME producers’ experience, Commerce chooses a primary surrogate country that is economically comparable to the NME country (measured in terms of the countries’ comparative per capita gross national income (‘GNI’)), is a significant producer of comparable merchandise, and provides publicly-available, reliable, and relevant data. 21

Commerce originally chose India as the appropriate surrogate market economy country for China during the period covered by the fifth review. 22 ' Although AHS-TAC successfully challenged that choice of surrogate for the fifth review, 23 the issue was subsequently rendered moot and accordingly was ultimately not revisited in that proceeding. 24 And when, in the context of Regal’s seventh review revocation request, Commerce analyzed whether Regal sold subject merchandise at less than normal value during the fifth review period, Commerce again — despite the Court’s decision in China Shrimp AR5 — used India as the surrogate country for its analysis of Regal’s fifth review data. 25

However, as this Court also explained in AHSTAC T.

In China Shrimp AR5, this Court held that Commerce acted arbitrarily in the *1354

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145 F. Supp. 3d 1349, 2016 CIT 7, 37 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2712, 2016 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 6, 2016 WL 275300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ad-hoc-shrimp-trade-action-committee-v-united-states-cit-2016.