Huvis Corp. v. United States

525 F. Supp. 2d 1370, 31 Ct. Int'l Trade 1803, 31 C.I.T. 1803, 30 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1057, 2007 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 168
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedNovember 20, 2007
DocketSlip Op. 07-170; Court 06-00380
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 525 F. Supp. 2d 1370 (Huvis Corp. 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
Huvis Corp. v. United States, 525 F. Supp. 2d 1370, 31 Ct. Int'l Trade 1803, 31 C.I.T. 1803, 30 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1057, 2007 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 168 (cit 2007).

Opinion

Opinion & Order

CARMAN, Judge.

The motion before this Court is Plaintiff Huvis Corporation’s (“Huvis”) USCIT R. 56.1 Motion for Judgment upon the Agency Record. Huvis challenges the final results of the fifth administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain polyester staple fiber from Korea. Certain Polyester Staple Fiber from Korea, 71 Fed.Reg. 58,581 (Dep’t Commerce Oct. 4, 2006) (final results) and the accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum (Dep’t Commerce Sept. 28, 2006), Pub. Doc. 80 (“5AR Issues and Decision Mem.”) (collectively, “Final Results”). For the reasons that follow, this Court remands the Final Results to the United States Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) for further action consistent with this opinion.

Background

Huvis is a Korean producer and exporter of polyester staple fiber (“PSF”), a synthetic fiber chiefly used for stuffing items such as clothing and pillows. See Certain PSF from Korea, 71 Fed.Reg. at 58,581. PSF is subject to an antidumping duty order, and Huvis has participated in many administrative reviews in connection therewith. The administrative review that is the subject of this action, the fifth, covered the period May 1, 2004, through April 30, 2005. Id.

PSF is made from chemical raw materials, the most important of which is terep-thalic acid. Huvis uses three types (or grades) of terepthalic acid in its manufacture of PSF: qualified-grade terepthalic acid (“QTA”), middle terepthalic acid *1373 (“MTA”), and purified terepthalic acid (“PTA”). During the period of review, Huvis purchased all of the terepthalic acid it used from affiliated companies. Huvis purchased MTA from one of its two parent companies, SK Chemicals, while it purchased QTA and PTA from Samnam Petrochemical Company, Ltd. (“Samnam”). 1 (Br. of PI. Huvis Corp. in Supp. of PL’s Mot. for J. upon the Agency R. (“Pl.Br.”) 3-4 (citing Confidential Record (“Con-fid.R.”) Doc. 3 at App. D-4 at 1); see also Confid. R. Doc. 7 at 30.)

During the fifth administrative review, Commerce requested that Huvis submit three values for the purchases of terep-thalic acid made during the period of review: (1) the price Huvis paid to its affiliated suppliers (the “transfer price”); (2) the affiliated producer’s cost of production for the input; and (3) the price at which the affiliated producer made sales of the input to unaffiliated parties (the “market price”). For MTA, Huvis submitted all three of the requested measures: transfer price, cost of production, and market price. (Pl.Br.4-5.) In contrast, for the inputs QTA and PTA, Huvis submitted only transfer price and cost of production, but not market price. (Id. at 4.) Huvis explained that its supplier of the QTA and PTA, Samnam, was not willing to provide market price data to Huvis because Sam-nam considered it proprietary. Further, Huvis explained to Commerce that it could not force Samnam to supply the market price data because neither Huvis nor its parent company, Samyang, exercised control over Samnam. As for the two measures that Huvis did submit, the data showed that the average transfer price was higher than Samnam’s cost of production for both QTA and PTA. (Id. at 6-7 (citing Confid. R. Doc. 7 at 31).)

In the preliminary results, Commerce calculated Huvis’s cost of manufacture for PSF by adding together, inter alia, the values of the chemical inputs to that merchandise — QTA, MTA, and PTA. Because Huvis bought QTA, MTA, and PTA from affiliated suppliers, and because they constituted “major inputs” to PSF, Commerce applied the “Major Input Rule” to determine their values. 2 For the input MTA, Commerce compared the transfer price, market price, and cost of production. Because the transfer price was higher than both market price and cost of production, Commerce made no adjustments to the value of MTA. For the input PTA, market price was not on the record, and so Commerce compared only transfer price and cost of production. Because transfer price was higher, Commerce made no adjustment to the value of PTA. For the input QTA, Commerce followed the methodology it had used for that input in the previous administrative review. Certain PSF from Korea, 71 Fed.Reg. 30,867, 30,871 (Dep’t Commerce May 31, 2006) (preliminary review results). After finding that QTA was “interchangeable” with MTA, Commerce filled in the missing QTA market price with the MTA market price Huvis had *1374 submitted. Because the MTA market price was higher than the QTA transfer price and cost of production, Commerce upwardly adjusted the value of QTA to reflect the arm’s-length, or market, price.

Following Commerce’s publication of the preliminary results, Huvis submitted information to Commerce that MTA and QTA were not, in fact, interchangeable. Commerce reevaluated its preliminary findings and agreed with Huvis that the two inputs were not interchangeable. Commerce also reevaluated its position regarding the missing market price for the input PTA. In the final results, Commerce applied facts available 3 to fill in market prices for both QTA and PTA. To fill in the missing market prices, Commerce calculated a profit rate taken from the supplier’s, Samnam’s, submitted financial statements. (5AR Issues and Decision Mem., Comment 1, Pub. Doc. 80.) Commerce added that profit rate to Samnam’s cost of production data for QTA and PTA to come up with a calculated market value for each input. Because the calculated market prices were higher than the transfer prices (and, obviously, than the costs of production, as the market value was derived from the cost of production), Commerce upwardly adjusted the QTA and PTA values when calculating the cost of manufacture for Huvis’s PSF. (Id.) Huvis argues that this had the effect of unfairly increasing the dumping margin applied to its imports. After Commerce published notice of the Final Results in the Federal Register, Huvis timely filed suit in this Court.

Jurisdiction

This Court has exclusive jurisdiction to review final results of administrative reviews pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1581(c) (2000).

Standard of Review

When reviewing Commerce’s final results of administrative reviews, this Court must sustain Commerce’s determinations, findings, or conclusions unless they are “unsupported by substantial evidence on the record, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(b)(1)(B)(i) (2000); accord NTN Bearing Corp. of Am. v. United States, 368 F.3d 1369, 1372 (Fed.Cir.2004); Micron Tech., Inc. v. United States, 117 F.3d 1386, 1393 (Fed.Cir.1997). To be in accordance with law, an agency’s action or decision must be constitutional, and not contrary to statute, regulation, precedent, or procedures. FCC v. NextWave Pers. Commc’ns, Inc.,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ellwood City Forge Co. v. United States
Court of International Trade, 2026
PT. Zinus Glob. Indonesia v. United States
2025 CIT 15 (Court of International Trade, 2025)
Dillinger France S.A. v. United StatesPublic version: 08/15/2023.
651 F. Supp. 3d 1294 (Court of International Trade, 2023)
Uttam Galva Steels Ltd. v. United States
476 F. Supp. 3d 1387 (Court of International Trade, 2020)
Sao Ta Foods Joint Stock Co. v. United StatesPublic version posted 09/23/2020.
475 F. Supp. 3d 1283 (Court of International Trade, 2020)
Asociación de Exportadores e Industriales de Aceitunas de Mesa v. United States
429 F. Supp. 3d 1325 (Court of International Trade, 2020)
United States Steel Corp. v. United States
348 F. Supp. 3d 1248 (Court of International Trade, 2018)
La Molisana, S.p.A. v. United States
2018 CIT 76 (Court of International Trade, 2018)
Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co. Ltd. v. United States
255 F. Supp. 3d 1312 (Court of International Trade, 2017)
Seah Steel Vina Corp. v. United States
182 F. Supp. 3d 1316 (Court of International Trade, 2016)
Maverick Tube Corp. v. United States
163 F. Supp. 3d 1345 (Court of International Trade, 2016)
Huvis Corp. v. United States
570 F.3d 1347 (Federal Circuit, 2009)
Alloy Piping Products, Inc. v. United States
33 Ct. Int'l Trade 349 (Court of International Trade, 2009)
Huvis Corp. v. United States
32 Ct. Int'l Trade 845 (Court of International Trade, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
525 F. Supp. 2d 1370, 31 Ct. Int'l Trade 1803, 31 C.I.T. 1803, 30 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1057, 2007 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 168, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huvis-corp-v-united-states-cit-2007.