Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd. v. United States

Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit·Decided April 28, 2025·No. 23-2163·Unpublished

Opinion

NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD., GUIZHOU TYRE IMPORT AND EXPORT CO., LTD., AEOLUS TYRE CO., LTD.,

Plaintiffs-Appellants

QINGDAO FREE TRADE ZONE FULL-WORLD INTERNATIONAL TRADING CO., LTD., XUZHOU XUGONG TYRES CO., LTD., TRELLEBORG WHEEL SYSTEMS (XINGTAI) CO., LTD., QINGDAO QIHANG TYRE CO., LTD., WEIHAI ZHONGWEI RUBBER CO., LTD.,

Plaintiffs

v.

UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee

2023-2163, 2023-2164

Appeals from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:17-cv-00100-TCS, 1:17-cv-00102-TCS, 1:17-cv-00103-TCS, 1:17-cv-00104-TCS, 1:17-cv-00111- TCS, 1:17-cv-00113-TCS, 1:17-cv-00123-TCS, Senior Judge Timothy C. Stanceu.

-------------------------------------------------

2 GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD. v. US

GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD., GUIZHOU TYRE IMPORT AND EXPORT CO., LTD., Plaintiffs-Appellants

CHINA MANUFACTURERS ALLIANCE LLC, SHANGHAI HUAYI GROUP CORPORATION LIMITED, FKA DOUBLE COIN HOLDINGS LTD., Plaintiffs

v.

UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee

2023-2165

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:19-cv-00031-TCS, 1:19-cv-00034-TCS, Senior Judge Timothy C. Stanceu.

Decided: April 28, 2025

JORDAN CHARLES KAHN, Grunfeld, Desiderio, Lebowitz, Silverman & Klestadt LLP, Washington, DC, argued for plaintiffs-appellants. Also represented by DHARMENDRA NARAIN CHOUDHARY, KAVITA MOHAN; NED H. MARSHAK, New York, NY.

STEPHEN CARL TOSINI, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Washington , DC, argued for defendant-appellee in appeals 2023- 2163, 2023-2164. Also argued by KARA WESTERCAMP in appeal 2023-2165. Also represented by EMMA E. BOND, BRIAN M. BOYNTON, CLAUDIA BURKE, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY,

GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD. v. US 3

LOREN MISHA PREHEIM, YAAKOV ROTH; ELIO GONZALEZ, Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Compliance , United States Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.

Before TARANTO, CLEVENGER, and HUGHES, Circuit Judges.

TARANTO, Circuit Judge.

The appeals before us are materially the same in the legal and factual issues presented. Each pertains to entries of merchandise from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) subject to an antidumping-duty order issued by the United States Department of Commerce. In each review, Commerce concluded that certain exporters from the PRC, of which the PRC indirectly owned a substantial but minority share, were not entitled to a separate antidumping-duty rate for the subject merchandise because they failed to demonstrate their independence from the PRC government ’s control. Commerce thus assigned those entities the PRC-wide antidumping-duty rate, and the United States Court of International Trade (Trade Court) eventually sustained Commerce’s determinations. Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, 641 F. Supp. 3d 1371, 1374 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2023) (CIT 2023 OTR Decision); Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, 641 F. Supp. 3d 1386, 1388 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2023) (CIT 2023 TBT Decision). The companies appeal to this court, challenging Commerce’s refusal to assign them their own separate rates. Because appellants’ assertions of legal error fail and Commerce’s findings are supported by substantial evidence, we affirm.

I

A

Two appeals are before us from a Trade Court judgment in an administrative review based on Commerce’s 4 GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD. v. US

2008 order subjecting to antidumping duties certain new pneumatic off-the-road (OTR) tires from the PRC. See Fed. Cir. Nos. 23-2163 and 23-2164. Specifically, the two appeals involve the seventh administrative review, under 19 U.S.C. § 1675, of subject merchandise that entered the United States between September 1, 2014, and August 31, 2015. J.A. 3827–28. The entities under investigation included companies we call “Guizhou Tyre” collectively—specifically , Guizhou Tyre Co., Ltd. (GTC) and its wholly owned affiliate, Guizhou Tyre Import and Export Co., Ltd. (GTCIE)—as well as Aeolus Tyre Co., Ltd. J.A. 3829. Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus are the appellants in those appeals, which we consolidated and which we refer to jointly as the OTR Appeal.

In April 2017, Commerce determined that Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus were not entitled to their own separate antidumping-duty rates and would receive the PRC-wide rate. Certain New Pneumatic Off-the-Road Tires From the People’s Republic of China: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2014–2015, 82 Fed. Reg. 18733, 18733–36 (Apr. 21, 2017) (OTR Final Results), as amended by Certain New Pneumatic Off-the-Road Tires From the People’s Republic of China: Amended Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2014– 2015, 82 Fed. Reg. 27224, 27224–26 (June 14, 2017). Commerce explained that it was following its usual practice of presuming that each company within the PRC’s “non-market economy” is subject to the PRC government’s control and would, unless the company demonstrated the absence of de jure and de facto government control, be assigned the shared PRC-wide antidumping-duty rate. Issues and Decision Memorandum for Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review: Certain New Pneumatic Off-the- Road Tires from the People’s Republic of China; 2014–2015 at 6–8 (Dep’t of Commerce Apr. 12, 2017) (OTR Final Memo); see also Pirelli Tyre Co. v. United States, 128 F.4th 1265, 1268 (Fed. Cir. 2025); China Manufacturers Alliance,

GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD. v. US 5

LLC v. United States, 1 F.4th 1028, 1036–37 (Fed. Cir. 2021); Michaels Stores, Inc. v. United States, 766 F.3d 1388, 1390, 1392 (Fed. Cir. 2014); Sigma Corp. v. United States, 117 F.3d 1401, 1405–06 (Fed. Cir. 1997). Commerce found that appellants had failed to carry their burden of persuasion of showing the lack of government control, finding that their largest and controlling shareholders were directly or indirectly state-owned and “ha[d] the ability to control, and an interest in controlling, the operations of the company, including the selection of management and the profitability of the company.” OTR Final Memo, at 10; see id. at 13 (similar).

Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus each filed suit against the United States in the Trade Court, challenging Commerce’s separate-rate denials, and the cases were consolidated. Among the challenges presented were Guizhou Tyre’s argument that Commerce had erroneously found that Guizhou Tyre elected board members through meetings not available to all shareholders and Aeolus’s argument that Commerce had failed to consider important evidence, a “Rectification Report,” that allegedly showed elimination of previous state control. In May 2019, the Trade Court remanded the matter for Commerce to reconsider its separate -rate determinations in light of all record evidence, including the accessibility of shareholder meetings and the significance of the Rectification Report. Guizhou Tyre Co. v. United States, 389 F. Supp. 3d 1350, 1356–60, 1370 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2019) (CIT 2019 OTR Decision).

In the remand proceedings, Commerce again concluded that Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus failed to show a lack of state control over management selection, i.e., the third “factor” bearing on de facto control, and assigned Guizhou Tyre and Aeolus the PRC-wide rate. J.A. 96–138 (OTR Remand I). The matter returned to the Trade Court, which, in May 2021, remanded the matter for the second time, requiring Commerce to make a redetermination of whether Guizhou Tyre or Aeolus should be assigned its own separate rate.

6 GUIZHOU TYRE CO., LTD. v. US

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