BMW of N. Am. LLC v. United States

926 F.3d 1291
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedMay 9, 2019
Docket2018-1109
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 926 F.3d 1291 (BMW of N. Am. LLC v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
BMW of N. Am. LLC v. United States, 926 F.3d 1291 (Fed. Cir. 2019).

Opinion

Opinion dissenting-in-part filed by Chief Judge Prost.

Stoll, Circuit Judge.

BMW of North America LLC ("BMW") appeals the final judgment of the United States Court of International Trade, sustaining the United States Department of Commerce's application of an adverse facts available ("AFA") rate of 126.44% against BMW. We conclude that Commerce did not set forth its reasoning in sufficient detail to allow review of whether the selected AFA rate was unduly punitive. We therefore vacate the Court of International Trade's decision and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

*1294BACKGROUND

I

Among its many duties, Commerce is charged with protecting domestic producers from foreign exporters' unfair trade practices. To this end, Commerce must investigate and impose antidumping duties on imported merchandise sold in the United States at less than fair value, causing material injury or threatening to cause material injury to an industry in the United States. See 19 U.S.C. § 1673. Generally, exporters of subject merchandise that have not been individually investigated during an antidumping duty investigation are subject to an "all-others rate" imposed in Commerce's final determination. Id. § 1673d(c)(1)(B). If an exporter or other interested party properly requests administrative review and is selected for individual examination, however, Commerce will reassess the antidumping duties applied to the exporter's subject merchandise using actual dumping margins for the period of review. See id. § 1675.

With this brief background, we turn to the relevant facts in this case. On May 2, 2011, Commerce posted a notice in the Federal Register permitting interested parties to request an administrative review of antidumping duty orders on ball bearings and parts thereof from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, for the period of May 1, 2010, through April 30, 2011. Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or Suspended Investigation; Opportunity to Request Administrative Review , 76 Fed. Reg. 24,460, 24,460-61 (May 2, 2011). BMW timely requested administrative review of the antidumping duties on its imports of ball bearings and parts thereof from the United Kingdom.

In the meantime, the antidumping duty orders on ball bearings and parts thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom, which were first imposed on May 15, 1989, were undergoing sunset review. To satisfy international treaty obligations, Commerce and the International Trade Commission ("ITC") must review antidumping duty orders every five years. See Understanding Five-Year (Sunset) Reviews , UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION (Jan. 11, 2019). To maintain an antidumping duty order, Commerce must determine every five years that revoking the order would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of dumping, and the ITC must determine that revoking the order would be likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of material injury to an industry in the United States. Id. Here, both agencies made the requisite determinations, but the Court of International Trade vacated and remanded the ITC's determination several times between 2006 and 2011. The ITC eventually determined that revocation of the orders would not be likely to lead to the continuation or recurrence of material injury to a U.S. industry within a reasonably foreseeable time, and the Court of International Trade affirmed the ITC on April 20, 2011. The judgment was appealed to our court and stayed until July 6, 2011.

On July 15, 2011, Commerce published a notice in the Federal Register stating that it was "revoking the antidumping duty orders on ball bearings and parts thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom." Ball Bearings and Parts Thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom: Revocation of Antidumping Duty Orders , 76 Fed. Reg. 41,761, 41,762 (July 15, 2011). The notice further indicated that, "[a]s a result of this revocation, the Department is discontinuing all unfinished administrative reviews immediately and will not initiate any new administrative reviews of the orders." Id. Commerce also noted that "the suspension of liquidation on all entries of ball bearings ... will continue until there is a 'final and conclusive' court decision." Id. at 41,763. On May 16, 2013, our court reversed *1295the Court of International Trade, and on November 18, 2013, the Court of International Trade reinstated the ITC's affirmative material injury determination.

On December 12, 2013, Commerce e-mailed counsel for all parties that had previously requested administrative review, stating only that it was "sending out a quantity-and-value-questionnaire to all respondents in the 5/1/2010-4/30/2011 administrative reviews of ball bearings and parts thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom." J.A. 134. The subject line of the email read "Ball Bearings from Japan and UK: AFBs 22 (2010-11) Quantity-and-Value Questionnaire." Id. On December 16, 2013, Commerce published a notice in the Federal Register, indicating that it was "hereby resuming the administrative reviews covering the period May 1, 2010 through April 30, 2011" and that the "deadline for withdrawing requests for review ... will be 90 days after the date of publication of this notice." Ball Bearings and Parts Thereof from Japan and the United Kingdom: Notice of Reinstatement of Antidumping Duty Orders, Resumption of Administrative Reviews, and Advance Notification of Sunset Reviews , 78 Fed. Reg. 76,104, 76,105 -06 (Dec. 16, 2013). Counsel for BMW did not fill out the quantity-and-value-questionnaire, withdraw from administrative review, or otherwise respond to Commerce's communications.

II

During an administrative review, the "burden of creating an adequate record lies with interested parties and not with Commerce." Nan Ya Plastics Corp. v. U.S. ,

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926 F.3d 1291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bmw-of-n-am-llc-v-united-states-cafc-2019.