Mosaic Company v. United States

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedDecember 5, 2025
Docket24-1593
StatusPublished

This text of Mosaic Company v. United States (Mosaic Company v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mosaic Company v. United States, (Fed. Cir. 2025).

Opinion

Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 1 Filed: 12/05/2025

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

THE MOSAIC COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

UNITED STATES, Defendant-Appellee

INDUSTRIAL GROUP PHOSPHORITE, LLC, Defendant-Appellant

PHOSAGRO PJSC, JSC APATIT, Defendants ______________________

2024-1593 ______________________

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:21-cv-00117-JAR, 1:21-cv-00220-JAR, 1:21-cv-00221-JAR, Senior Judge Jane A. Restani. ______________________

Decided: December 5, 2025 ______________________

DAVID J. ROSS, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, Washington, DC, argued for plaintiff-appellee. Also represented by STEPHANIE HARTMANN. Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 2 Filed: 12/05/2025

JEREMY WILLIAM DUTRA, Squire Patton Boggs LLP, Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellant.

AUGUSTUS GOLDEN, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, Wash- ington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee. Also repre- sented by CLAUDIA BURKE, PATRICIA M. MCCARTHY, BRETT SHUMATE; JARED MICHAEL CYNAMON, Office of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement & Compliance, United States Department of Commerce, Washington, DC. ______________________

Before PROST, REYNA, and CHEN, Circuit Judges. REYNA, Circuit Judge. This is an appeal from a judgment of the United States Court of International Trade, which affirmed the U.S. De- partment of Commerce’s imposition of countervailing du- ties on certain imports of phosphate fertilizers from Russia. We affirm. BACKGROUND I. Where the production of goods exported to the United States benefited from subsidies bestowed by a foreign gov- ernment, then the goods may be subject to a countervailing duty when imported into the United States. 19 U.S.C. § 1671. These duties “protect American firms from unfair competition by setting off the amount certain export subsi- dies foreign firms selling goods in the United States receive from their governments.” Norsk Hydro Canada, Inc. v. United States, 472 F.3d 1347, 1349 (Fed. Cir. 2006). For a subsidy to be countervailable, it must meet certain require- ments, two of which are at issue in this appeal. First, a subsidy is countervailable when it is “specific” to an enterprise or industry rather than generally availa- ble. 19 U.S.C. § 1677(5)(A). A subsidy can be specific as a Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 3 Filed: 12/05/2025

MOSAIC COMPANY v. US 3

matter of law, also referred to as “de jure” specific, whereby the government legislates that a subsidy will apply specif- ically to an enterprise or industry. Id. § 1677(5A)(D)(i). A subsidy can also be specific as a matter of fact, also referred to as “de facto” specific. Id. § 1677(5A)(D)(iii). A subsidy may be de facto specific if one or more of the following fac- tors exist: (I) The actual recipients of the subsidy, whether considered on an enterprise or industry basis, are limited in number. (II) An enterprise or industry is a predominant user of the subsidy. (III) An enterprise or industry receives a dispropor- tionately large amount of the subsidy. (IV) The manner in which the authority providing the subsidy has exercised discretion in the decision to grant the subsidy indicates that an enterprise or industry is favored over others. Id. Relevant to this appeal is the “predominant user” fac- tor. Id. § 1677(5A)(D)(iii)(II). Second, a subsidy is countervailable when a foreign government provides a specific financial contribution to a party and that party benefits from the contribution. See 19 U.S.C. § 1677(5). One way that a party receives a benefit is through the provision of goods or services at “less than adequate remuneration” or “LTAR.” 19 U.S.C. § 1677(5)(E)(iv). Commerce uses a benchmark price to determine if the goods were sold at LTAR. See 19 C.F.R. § 351.511. Com- merce follows a three-tiered hierarchy when determining the appropriate benchmark. Id. Under tier one, Commerce compares “the government price to a market-determined price for the good or service resulting from actual transac- tions in the country in question.” Id. § 351.511(a)(2)(i). If Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 4 Filed: 12/05/2025

no such transactions exist, Commerce moves to tier two and compares “the government price to a world market price where it is reasonable to conclude that such price would be available to purchasers in the country in ques- tion.” Id. § 351.511(a)(2)(ii). If no world market price is available, Commerce moves to tier three and “assess[es] whether the government price is consistent with market principles.” Id. § 351.511(a)(2)(iii). II. Appellee The Mosaic Company (“Mosaic”) petitioned Commerce to initiate a countervailing duty investigation into whether the Russian government (“Russia”) was providing countervailable subsidies to Russian producers and exporters of phosphate fertilizers. One of the alleged subsidies was the provision of natural gas at LTAR. On July 30, 2020, Commerce granted the petition, noting the period of investigation (“POI”) was from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. Commerce selected appellant Indus- trial Group Phosphorite, LLC, (“EuroChem”) as a manda- tory respondent. Commerce also selected PhosAgro PJSC (“PhosAgro”), who is not a party to this appeal, as a man- datory respondent. As part of its investigation, Commerce issued question- naires to Russia. First, Commerce broadly requested infor- mation about the “regulated prices for natural gas in Russia on a monthly basis during the POI.” J.A. 1966. Russia responded by providing only “[r]egulated wholesale gas prices for industrial consumers on a monthly basis in 2019.” J.A. 1972 (emphasis added). Second, Commerce requested information about the consumption of natural gas in Russia. Russia responded that based on information provided by the Russian ferti- lizer industry, the Russian fertilizer industry accounted for 4.7% of Russia’s total natural gas consumption in 2019. J.A. 1024. Commerce then requested Russia to “[p]rovide a detailed breakdown, by industry sector, of the volume Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 5 Filed: 12/05/2025

MOSAIC COMPANY v. US 5

and value [for] consumption of natural gas in Russia dur- ing the POI . . . .” J.A. 1785. Russia responded that it “do[es] not maintain statistics on volume and value of nat- ural gas consumption by industry sector,” and instead re- lied on data from Gazprom. J.A. 1785–87. Gazprom is a government-controlled company and the largest supplier of natural gas in Russia. Russia provided a “Table 1,” which displayed Gazprom’s data on volumes of gas transported via its pipeline system during 2019. J.A. 1787. Table 1 is displayed below, along with Russia’s explanation of the in- formation displayed in the table. Id. The amounts con- sumed are confidential and thus have been redacted. 1

1 This version of Table 1 is from appellee Mosaic’s public response brief and displays Mosaic’s removal of the confidential information. See Mosaic Response Br. 10. The groups displayed in Table 1 are not ordered in terms of amount of natural gas received. Case: 24-1593 Document: 85 Page: 6 Filed: 12/05/2025

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