Bridgestone Americas, Inc. v. United States

2010 CIT 55
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedMay 14, 2010
DocketConsol. 08-00256
StatusErrata

This text of 2010 CIT 55 (Bridgestone Americas, Inc. 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
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. v. United States, 2010 CIT 55 (cit 2010).

Opinion

Slip Op. 10-55

UNITED STATES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

__________________________________________ : BRIDGESTONE AMERICAS, INC., : BRIDGESTONE AMERICAS TIRE : OPERATIONS, LLC, and TITAN TIRE : CORPORATION, : : Plaintiffs, : : v. : Before: Jane A. Restani, Chief Judge : UNITED STATES, : Consol. Court No. 08-00256 : Defendant, : : and : : XUZHOU XUGONG TYRES CO., LTD. : : Defendant-Intervenor. : __________________________________________:

OPINION

[Commerce’s remand determination sustained.]

Dated: May 14, 2009

King & Spalding, LLP (Joseph W. Dorn, Daniel L. Schneiderman, and J. Michael Taylor) for plaintiffs Bridgestone Americas, Inc. and Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC.

Stewart and Stewart (Wesley K. Caine and Terence P. Stewart) and King & Spalding, LLP (Daniel L. Schneiderman) for plaintiff Titan Tire Corporation.

Tony West, Assistant Attorney General; Jeanne E. Davidson, Director, Franklin E. White, Jr., Assistant Director, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, U.S. Department of Justice (Michael David Panzera, John J. Todor and Loren Misha Preheim); Daniel J. Calhoun, Irene H. Chen and David Richardson, Office of the Chief Counsel for Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, of counsel, for the defendant. Consol. Court No. 08-00256 Page 2

White & Case, LLP (Adams C. Lee and Frank H. Morgan) for the defendant- intervenor.

Restani, Chief Judge: This matter is before the court for decision following

objections by Defendant-Intervenor Xuzhou Xugong Tyres Co., Ltd. (“Xugong”) to the Final

Redetermination issued by the International Trade Administration, United States Department of

Commerce (“Commerce” or the “Department”). In 2008, Plaintiffs Bridgestone Americas, Inc.,

Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations, LLC, and Titan Tire Corporation (collectively,

“Bridgestone”), domestic producers of certain off-the-road (“OTR”) tires, contested Commerce’s

exclusion of Xugong, a Chinese producer of OTR tires, from the scope of a final antidumping

(“AD”) determination. See Certain New Pneumatic Off-The-Road-Tires from the People’s

Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Partial

Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, 73 Fed. Reg. 40,485, 40,488 89 (Dep’t

Commerce July 15, 2008) (“Final Determination”). Specifically, Plaintiffs contested

Commerce’s determination that fifteen of the raw material inputs Xugong used in producing the

tires were indirect materials.

In August 2009, the court remanded the Final Determination to Commerce to

“reconsider whether each of the fifteen inputs was a direct or indirect material, to reopen the

record as appropriate, and to recalculate the dumping margin accordingly.” Bridgestone

Americas, Inc. v. United States, 636 F. Supp. 2d 1347, 1357 (CIT 2009) (“Bridgestone I”). On

remand, Commerce adjusted the antidumping duty rate upward from 0.00 percent to 10.01

percent. Final Redetermination Pursuant to Court Remand (Dep’t Commerce Jan. 8, 2010) Consol. Court No. 08-00256 Page 3

(Docket No. 88) (“Final Redetermination”).1 Following remand, Xugong asserts that

Commerce’s redetermination with respect to one of fifteen manufacturing inputs, “HO Oil,”

cannot be sustained. (Defendant-Intervenor Xuzhou Xugong Tyres Co., LTD.’s Objections to

the Department of Commerce’s January 8 Remand Determination, at 5, 13 (Docket No. 94)

(“Xugong Objection”).) The court will enter judgment affirming Commerce’s redetermination.

BACKGROUND

In July 2007, Commerce initiated an antidumping (“AD”) investigation to

determine whether imports of certain pneumatic OTR tires from the People’s Republic of China

for the period of 1 October 2006 through 31 March 2007, were being sold in the United States at

less than fair value. See Initiation of Antidumping Duty Investigation: Certain New Pneumatic

Off-the-Road Tires From the People’s Republic of China, 72 Fed. Reg. 43,591, 43,592 (Dep’t

Commerce Aug. 6, 2007). Commerce selected Xugong as a mandatory respondent. Certain

New Pneumatic Off-The-Road Tires From the People’s Republic of China; Preliminary

Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final Determination, 73

Fed. Reg. 9278, 9282 83 (Dep’t Commerce Feb. 20, 2008) (“Preliminary Determination”).2 In

1 For a complete discussion of background information, the reader is referred to this Court’s August 2009 opinion ordering remand. Bridgestone I, 636 F. Supp. 2d at 1347. 2 The other mandatory respondents were Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd., Hebei Starbright Co., Ltd., and Tianjin United Tire & Rubber International Co., Ltd. Id. at 9278 n.3, 9283. Those respondents were also mandatory respondents in an accompanying countervailing duty (“CVD”) investigation. See Certain New Pneumatic Off-the-Road Tires From the People’s Republic of China: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Final Negative Determination of Critical Circumstances, 73 Fed. Reg. 40,480, 40,483 (Dep’t Commerce July 15, 2008). Currently pending before the court is Commerce’s AD and CVD remand determinations as they relate to those separate respondents. See GPX Int’l Tire Corp. v. United States, 645 F. Supp. 2d (continued...) Consol. Court No. 08-00256 Page 4

the Preliminary Determination, Commerce calculated a dumping margin of 51.81% for Xugong.

Id. at 9291.

After the Preliminary Determination, Commerce issued Xugong a supplemental

questionnaire requesting clarifying information and an updated factors of production database

for the purpose of calculating normal value to compare with the United States price. (See

Xugong’s Fifth Supplemental Questionnaire Response (“Fifth Supplemental Questionnaire”),

Exs. Accompanying the Pl.’s. Br. of Bridgestone, Tab 3 (Docket No. 107) (“Pl.’s App.”).) In

addition to providing the requested information, Xugong informed Commerce that fifteen of the

raw material inputs it previously reported as direct materials were in fact indirect materials and

included the corrections in the updated database. (Id.) Although Commerce treated the fifteen

inputs as direct materials in calculating the preliminary dumping margin, Commerce treated

them as indirect materials in its Final Determination and calculated a zero dumping margin for

Xugong. Final Determination, 73 Fed. Reg. at 40,488 89.

Bridgestone challenged Commerce’s zero dumping margin and the court

remanded this matter to the Department to “reconsider whether each of the fifteen inputs was

direct or indirect material.” Bridgestone I, 636 F. Supp. 2d at 1357. In response, Commerce

reopened the administrative record and issued a Supplemental Questionnaire. (See Pl.’s App.

Tab 7.) Xugong asserts that in the course of preparing the response it determined that the raw

material it “referred to as HO Oil was, in fact, aromatic oil.” (Xugong Objection 5.) Xugong

submitted the alleged translation error correction in its Supplemental Questionnaire Response

2 (...continued) 1231 (CIT 2009). Consol. Court No. 08-00256 Page 5

and postulates that aromatic oil should be valued under HTS Heading 2707.50 as opposed to its

suggested HTS Heading 2902.90.90 for HO Oil. (See Xugong Objection 13; Def.’s Resp. to

Def.-Intervenor’s Objections to the Dep’t of Commerce’s Remand Redetermination, 11 (Docket

No. 99) (“Def.’s Resp.”).) Throughout its objection Xugong focuses on the input labeled HO

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