Home Products International, Inc. v. United States

837 F. Supp. 2d 1294, 2012 CIT 60, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1493, 2012 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 56
United States Court of International Trade·Decided May 3, 2012·No. Consol. 11-00104·Published·Cited by 16 cases

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

GORDON, Judge:

This consolidated action involves an administrative review conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) of the antidumping duty order covering Floor-Standing, Metal-Top Ironing Tables from China. See Floor-Standing, Metal-Top Ironing Tables and Certain Parts Thereof from the People’s Republic of China, 76 Fed.Reg. 15,295 (Dep’t of Commerce Mar. 21, 2011) (final results admin, review) {“Final Results ”); see also Issues and Decision Memorandum for Ironing Tables from China, A-570-888 (Mar. 14, 2011), available at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/ summary/PRC/2011-6560-l.pdf (last visited May 3, 2012) {“Decision Memorandum ”).

Before the court are the Final Results of Redetermination {“Remand Results ”), Mar. 14, 2012, ECF No. 83, filed by Commerce pursuant to Home Products Int'l, Inc. v. United States, 36 CIT -, 810 F.Supp.2d 1373 (2012) {“Home Products ”). Also before the court are two motions for reconsideration, one filed by Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. (“Since Hard *1296 ware”) seeking vacatur of (1) this court’s order in Home Products sustaining Commerce’s selection of surrogate financial statements (because Since Hardware failed to timely file an administrative case brief and exhaust administrative remedies), Home Products, 36 CIT -, 810 F.Supp.2d at 1377, and (2) this court’s order deeming waived Since Hardware’s challenge to Commerce’s surrogate value determination for brokerage and handling, Memorandum and Order, Jan. 3, 2012, ECF No. 62, as amended Jan. 4, 2012, ECF No. 63 (“Memorandum and Order”). Home Products International, Inc. (“HPI”) filed the other motion and seeks reconsideration of the court’s order in Home Products sustaining Commerce’s decision to value Since Hardware’s carton input using market economy prices, Home Products, 36 CIT at -, 810 F.Supp.2d at 1376-77.

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) (2006), 1 and 28 U.S.C. § 1581(c) (2006). For the reasons set forth below, the Remand Results are sustained, Since Hardware’s motion for reconsideration is denied, and HPI’s motion for reconsideration is granted.

I. Remand Results

In the Final Results Commerce calculated the surrogate hourly wage rate using ISIC Revision 3 data from Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, the Philippines, Peru, Thailand, and the Ukraine. ISIC Revision 3, however, did not contain data from India, the primary surrogate country. It was this specific issue — Commerce’s decision to use only ISIC Revision 3 data and thereby exclude labor data from the primary surrogate country — that the court remanded to Commerce. Home Products, 36 CIT at -, 810 F.Supp.2d at 1379-80. In discussing the necessity of a remand, the court noted the persuasiveness of a block-quoted passage from Shandong Rongxin Imp. & Exp. Co. v. United States, 35 CIT -, -, 774 F.Supp.2d 1307, 1315 (2011), which addressed an identical issue and explained the potential unreasonableness of Commerce using only ISIC Revision 3 data and excluding Indian labor data. The Shandong court remanded the issue to Commerce to “explain why the need for consistency across ISIC revisions predominates over the need for a broad basket of countries to value labor,” or “to review which qualifying countries have reported data under a prior ISIC revision which satisfy the agency’s other requirements.” Shandong, 35 CIT at -, 774 F.Supp.2d at 1315. Likewise, here, the court directed Commerce to address the “specific issues” quoted from Shandong, “and if necessary, include Indian data in its calculation.” Home Products, 36 CIT at -, 810 F.Supp.2d at 1380.

On remand, Commerce included Indian data in its surrogate labor calculation, using data from ISIC Revisions 2 & 3 (Commerce also included labor data from Nicaragua, as well as from the eight countries used in the Final Results). Remand Results at 3-4. As a result, Since Hardware’s margin changed from 67.37 percent to 66.06 percent. Id. at 12. Since Hardware challenges two aspects of the Remand Results: First, that Commerce erred by limiting the remand proceeding to one issue raised in Shandong (ISIC Revision 3 and the exclusion of Indian data); and second, that Commerce should have applied its new labor wage rate policy, Antidumping Methodologies in Proceedings Involving Non-Market Economies: Valuing the Factor of Production: *1297 Labor, 76 Fed.Reg. 36, 092 (June 21, 2011) ("New Labor Wage Rate Policy"). Neither of these arguments is persuasive.

Since Hardware contends that the Remand Results are in error because Commerce did not address all of the issues raised and addressed by the court in Shandong. Since Hardware's Comments on Remand Results at 3-5, Consol. Court No. 11-00104, Apr. 4.2012, ECF No. 90 ("Since Hardware's Comments"). Since Hardware, however, has misread Home Products and the scope of the remand order. The remand was directed to the limited question of whether Commerce properly excluded labor data from countries that reported under ISIC Revision 2. Home Products, 36 CIT at -, 810 F.Supp.2d at 1379 ("Since Hardware does raise one issue from Commerce's labor wage rate determination that merits a remand: Commerce's selection of the industry-specific data from [ISIC].") (emphasis added). The court's block quotation from Shandong relates exclusively to the issue of whether Commerce reasonably excluded ISIC Revision 2 data, and addresses no other aspects of Commerce's labor wage rate valuation. Id. Commerce therefore was not required to address broader aspects of the labor calculation implicated in Shandong.

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Home Products International, Inc. v. United States, 837 F. Supp. 2d 1294, 2012 CIT 60, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1493, 2012 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 56 (cit 2012).

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