Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States

865 F. Supp. 2d 1284, 2012 CIT 116, 2012 WL 3879891, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2016, 2012 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 118
United States Court of International Trade·Decided September 7, 2012·No. Consol. 09-00378·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

RESTANI, Judge:

This matter comes before the court following the court’s decisions in Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States, 768 F.Supp.2d 1286 (CIT 2011) (“Lifestyle I”), in which the court remanded Wooden Bedroom Furniture from the People’s Republic of China: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review and New Shipper Reviews, 74 Fed.Reg. 41,374 (Dep’t Commerce Aug. 17, 2009) (“Final Results ”) to the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce” or the “Department”) and Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States, 844 F.Supp.2d 1283 (CIT 2012) (“Lifestyle II”), in which the court remanded Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Remand (Dep’t Commerce Aug. 26, 2011) (Docket No. 132) (“First Remand Results ”) to Commerce. For the reasons stated below, the court finds that Commerce complied with the court’s remand instructions with regard to the selection of the surrogate value for wood input, but Commerce has not complied with the court’s remand instructions regarding Orient’s AFA rate. Thus, Commerce’s Sec *1287 ond Remand Results are sustained in part and remanded in part. See Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Second Remand (Dep’t Commerce June 11, 2012) (Docket No. 183) (“Second Remand Results ”).

BACKGROUND

The facts of this case have been well-documented in the court’s previous opinions. See Lifestyle I, 768 F.Supp.2d at 1293-95; Lifestyle II, 844 F.Supp.2d at 1286-87. The court presumes familiarity with these decisions but briefly summarizes the facts relevant to this opinion.

The plaintiffs, Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. (“Lifestyle”), Orient International Holding Shanghai Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. (“Orient”), Guangdong Yihua Timber Industry Co., Ltd. (“Yihua Timber”), Dream Rooms Furniture (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Ron’s Warehouse Furniture, Emerald Home Furnishings, LLC, and Trade Masters of Texas, Inc., and intervenor defendants American Furniture Manufacturers Committee for Legal Trade and Vaughan-Bassett Furniture Company, Inc. (collectively “AFMC”) challenged the Final Results of an administrative review of the antidumping (“AD”) duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the People’s Republic of China (“PRC” or “China”), which assigned Orient a weighted average dumping margin 2 of 216.01% as part of the PRC-wide entity and Yihua Timber the dumping margin of 29.89%. See Final Results, 74 Fed.Reg. at 41,380; Wooden Bedroom Furniture from the People’s Republic of China: Amended Final Results of Anti-dumping Duty Administrative Review and New Shipper Reviews, 74 Fed.Reg. 55,810, 55,811 (Dep’t Commerce Oct. 29, 2009). Upon considering the parties’ motions for judgment on the agency record, the court held, inter alia, that substantial evidence did not support denial of a separate rate for Orient and that the rate of 216.01% assigned to Orient was not corroborated. Lifestyle I, 768 F.Supp.2d at 1296-99. The court also held that substantial evidence did not support Commerce’s decision on the data set for wood inputs. Id. at 1301-02. The court remanded for reconsideration or further explanation. Id. at 1314-15. On remand, Commerce 1) found “that the information on the record corroborates the rate of 216.01 percent, as it relates to Orient,” based on total adverse facts available (“AFA”), and 2) “continue[d] to find that it is appropriate to value wood inputs using [World Trade Atlas (“WTA”) ] import data.” First Remand Results 8, 31. Despite Commerce’s explanation, the court found that Commerce had not presented substantial evidence linking the source of the 216.01% AFA rate to Orient and therefore “Commerce ha[d] failed to show some relationship between the AFA rate and the actual dumping margin.” Lifestyle II, 844 *1288 F.Supp.2d at 1291 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). The court also found that Commerce had “failed to support its rejection of a volume-based approach,” and instructed Commerce that “unless it chooses to reopen the record to gather more evidence, to use the volume data set for wood inputs.” Id. at 1297-98. 3

In the Second Remand Results, Commerce chose not to reopen the record and recalculated the valuation of wood inputs using NSO volume-based data. Second Remand Results 1, 7. Commerce also calculated a new AFA rate of 130.81% for Orient. Id. at 9. Plaintiff Lifestyle challenges Commerce’s determination regarding Orient’s AFA rate. Cmts. of Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc., Trade Masters of Texas, Inc. and Emerald Home Furnishings, LLC on Department of Commerce June 11, 2012 Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Second Remand 12 (“Lifestyle Cmts.”). Yihua Timber challenges Commerce’s use of NSO volume-based data to value wood inputs. 4 Yihua’s Cmts. on Commerce’s Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Second Remand 1 (“Yihua Timber Cmts.”). The Government and AFMC ask the court to sustain the Second Remand Results. Def.’s Resp. to Pis.’ Remand Cmts. 1 (“Def.’s Resp.”); AFMC’s Cmts. Concerning Commerce’s Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Second Remand 1 (“AFMC Cmts.”). 5

JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

The court has jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1581(c). The court will not uphold Commerce’s final determination in an AD review if it is “unsupported by substantial evidence on the record, or otherwise not in accordance with law....” 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(b)(l)(B)(i).

DISCUSSION

I. Orient’s AFA Rate

Lifestyle argues that Orient’s AFA rate was not reasonably reflective of Orient’s commercial reality, punitive, and “aberrantly high and egregiously out of line with the rate calculated for Yihua [Timber], a comparable company.” Lifestyle Cmts. 8-9, 11. Specifically, Lifestyle contends that Commerce used an insufficient percentage of Yihua Timber’s sales, yielding an excessively high AFA rate. 6 Id. at 9-10. This claim has merit.

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

Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States, 865 F. Supp. 2d 1284, 2012 CIT 116, 2012 WL 3879891, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2016, 2012 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 118 (cit 2012).

865 F. Supp. 2d 1284 (Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Morex Ribbon Corp. v. United States
253 F. Supp. 3d 1378 (Court of International Trade, 2017)
Foshan Shunde Yongjian Housewares & Hardware Co., Ltd. v. United States
163 F. Supp. 3d 1313 (Court of International Trade, 2016)
Mark David, a Div. of Baker, Knapp & Tubbs, Inc. v. United States
24 F. Supp. 3d 1355 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States
751 F.3d 1371 (Federal Circuit, 2014)
Hubscher Ribbon Corp. v. United States
979 F. Supp. 2d 1360 (Court of International Trade, 2014)
Dongguan Sunrise Furniture Co., Ltd. v. United States
931 F. Supp. 2d 1346 (Court of International Trade, 2013)
Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co. v. United States
2013 CIT 71 (Court of International Trade, 2013)
Lifestyle Enterprise, Inc. v. United States
896 F. Supp. 2d 1297 (Court of International Trade, 2013)
GPX International Tire Corp v. United States
893 F. Supp. 2d 1296 (Court of International Trade, 2013)