Eurodif S.A. v. United States

411 F.3d 1355, 26 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2377, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 3567
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided March 3, 2005·No. Nos. 04-1209, 04-1210·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

PROST, Circuit Judge.

This interlocutory appeal comes to us from the United States Court of International Trade, which certified four separate questions for appeal to this court. The Ad Hoc Utilities Group (“AHUG”), Eurodif S.A. (“Eurodif’), Compagnie Generate des Matieres Nucleates (“CGMN”) and Coge-ma, Inc. appeal two issues from the Court of International Trade. The United States, USEC, Inc. and the United States Enrichment Corporation (the latter two collectively referred to as “USEC” in this opinion) cross-appeal two issues. We affirm the Court of International Trade’s decision affirming the Department of Commerce’s (“Commerce”) industry support determination. We also affirm the court’s decision that uranium enrichment contracts constitute a provision of services, rather than a sale of goods. Finally we reverse the court’s decision regarding subsidies, and hold that overpayment for uranium enrichment services by foreign government entities -cannot constitute a countervailable subsidy. Because we need not review the court’s decision regarding Commerce’s application of the tolling regulation in the context of export price determination, we decline to do so.

BACKGROUND

Enriched uranium fuel rods are used by the utility industry to generate nuclear power. The process of producing those rods involves multiple steps. First, uranium ore must be mined. Second, the ore must be milled or refined into concentrated uranium. Third, that concentrated uranium must be converted into uranium hexafluoride. Fourth, that uranium hexafluoride must be enriched into low enriched uranium (“LEU”). Fifth, and finally, LEU is used to fabricate uranium rods. This case involves the fourth step in the process of creating uranium rods — the enrichment of uranium hexafluoride into LEU.

Many utilities in the United States contract to buy uranium from a third-party seller and then contract to have that uranium enriched by a uranium enricher. Only one entity'in the United States enriches uranium into LEU — USEC, formerly an arm of the federal government. A variety of foreign enrichers, including Eurodif, CGMN and Cogema, compete with USEC and also enrich the uranium of American utility companies.1

Contracts for enriched uranium come mainly in two different forms. The first form involves contracts that provide money for the sale of enriched uranium, otherwise known as enriched uranium product, or EUP, contracts. The second form, the form relevant to this appeal, involves the transfer of unenriched uranium by a buyer to an enricher and the purchase of separative work units (“SWU”) from the en-richer. In these SWU contracts, the en-richer enriches the unenriched uranium and delivers LEU to the purchaser. Although the enricher may not necessarily produce a particular utility’s LEU from the uranium that utility provides to the enricher, the utility retains title, during the enrichment process, to the quantity of unenriched uranium that it supplies to the enricher.

In most of the transactions relevant to this case, AHUG and American utilities [1358]*1358entered into SWU contracts with European enrichers. These utilities compensated enrichers to process unenriched uranium into LEU. In another critical transaction, a partially public French utility, Electricite de France (“EdF”), entered into an SWU contract with French enricher Eurodif. In that contract, EdF allegedly paid Eurodif greater than adequate compensation for the enrichment of uranium.

On December 7, 2000, USEC petitioned Commerce to undertake an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation focusing on LEU coming from France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. On December 21, 2001, Commerce issued its final determinations in that investigation. Those, determinations focused on two main issues: (1) whether SWU contracts were contracts for the sale of goods and not services and, therefore, subject to U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty statutes, and (2) whether domestic utilities or foreign en-richers were “producers” of LEU for the purposes of determining whether or not there was sufficient industry support to begin an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation in the first place. In its final determinations, Commerce concluded that SWU contracts are contracts for the sale of goods and not services. It also decided that the foreign enrichers of uranium, and not the domestic utilities, were “producers” of LEU.

AHUG and the foreign enrichers party to this case appealed Commerce’s determination to the Court of International Trade, arguing that a uranium enrichment contract is a contract for the provision of services and not the sale of goods and, therefore, not subject to federal antidump-ing and countervailable subsidy statutes. AHUG also disputed Commerce’s contention that only the foreign enrichers are “producers” for domestic industry support determination purposes, arguing that Commerce’s determination that foreign en-richers were “producers” of LEU was inconsistent with its prior decisions. AHUG further contended that if the domestic utilities are considered producers of LEU, Commerce would not have sufficient domestic industry support to commence an investigation pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1673a(c)(4).

The Court of International Trade agreed with AHUG and determined that Commerce’s characterization of the enrichment contracts between AHUG and foreign en-richers as contracts for the sale of goods was not sustainable. USEC Inc. v. United States, 259 F.Supp.2d 1310, 1324-26 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2003) (“USEC I”). It also found that Commerce’s determination that the foreign enrichers were “producers” of LEU was against the weight of the evidence and inconsistent with prior Commerce decisions. Id. at 1317-26. As a result, the court remanded the case to allow Commerce to reconsider its determinations.

In its remand determination, Commerce reiterated its original positions. Final Remand Determination, USEC Inc. and United States Enrichment Corp. v. United States (June 23, 2003) (“Remand Determination ”). AHUG and the foreign enrich-ers then appealed that remand determination to the Court of International Trade. In its second consideration of Commerce’s determinations, the court concluded that (1) Commerce’s interpretation of the word “producer” in the context of making an industry support determination was reasonable and in accordance with law; (2) uranium enrichment contracts were contracts for services and not for goods; (3) payment by a foreign government entity of more than adequate remuneration to a foreign enricher for enrichment services qualified as a countervailable subsidy; and (4) Commerce’s interpretation of the word [1359]*1359“producer” for the purposes of making an export price determination was inconsistent with its previous determinations in other cases and thus not in accordance with law. USEC Inc. v. United States, 281 F.Supp.2d 1334 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2003) (“USEC II”).

Because the resolution of the issues decided by the court in USEC II are potentially dispositive of this entire case, the Court of International Trade certified four specific questions for appeal to this court. The four certified questions are:

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Eurodif S.A. v. United States, 411 F.3d 1355, 26 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2377, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 3567 (Fed. Cir. 2005).

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