Nan Ya Plastics Corp. v. United States

906 F. Supp. 2d 1348, 2013 WL 452744, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2595, 2013 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 22
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedFebruary 6, 2013
DocketSlip Op. 13-18; Court No. 11-00535
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 906 F. Supp. 2d 1348 (Nan Ya Plastics 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
Nan Ya Plastics Corp. v. United States, 906 F. Supp. 2d 1348, 2013 WL 452744, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2595, 2013 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 22 (cit 2013).

Opinion

OPINION and ORDER

GORDON, Judge:

This action involves an administrative review conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) of the anti-dumping duty order covering polyethylene terephthalate film, sheet, and strip from Taiwan. See Polyethylene Terephthalate Film, Sheet, and Strip from Taiwan, 76 Fed. Reg. 76,941 (Dep’t of Commerce Dec. 9, 2011) (final results admin, review) (“Final Results”)', see also Issues and Decision Memorandum, A-583-837 (Dep’t of Commerce Dec. 5, 2011), available at http://ia.ita.doe.gov/frn/summary/taiwan/ 2011-31695-l.pdf (last visited this date) (“Decision Memorandum”). Before the [1350]*1350court is the motion for judgment on the agency record of Plaintiff Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, Ltd. (“Nan Ya”) challenging Commerce’s assignment of a total adverse facts available (“AFA”) rate of 74.34 percent to Nan Ya. See Pl.’s Rule 56.2 Mot. for J. upon the Agency R., ECF No. 38 (“Pl.’s Br.”). 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 court remands this action to Commerce for further consideration.

I. Standard of Review

For administrative reviews of anti-dumping duty orders, the court sustains 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)(l)(B)(i). More specifically, when reviewing agency determinations, findings, or conclusions for substantial evidence, the court assesses whether the agency action is reasonable given the record as a whole. Nippon Steel Corp. v. United States, 458 F.3d 1345, 1350-51 (Fed.Cir.2006). Substantial evidence has been described as “such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Dupont Teijin Films USA v. United States, 407 F.3d 1211, 1215 (Fed.Cir.2005) (quoting Consol. Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229, 59 S.Ct. 206, 83 L.Ed. 126 (1938)). Substantial evidence has also been described as “something less than the weight of the evidence, and the possibility of drawing two inconsistent conclusions from the evidence does not prevent an administrative agency’s finding from being supported by substantial evidence.” Consolo v. Fed. Mar. Comm’n, 383 U.S. 607, 620, 86 S.Ct. 1018, 16 L.Ed.2d 131 (1966). Fundamentally, though, “substantial evidence” is best understood as a word formula connoting reasonableness review. 3 Charles H. Koch, Jr., Administrative Law and Practice § 9.24[1] (3d ed. 2012). Therefore, when addressing a substantial evidence issue raised by a party, the court analyzes whether the challenged agency action “was reasonable given the circumstances presented by the whole record.” Edward D. Re, Bernard J. Babb, and Susan M. Koplin, 8 West’s Fed. Forms, National Courts § 13342 (2d ed. 2012).

II. Background

On August 31, 2010, Commerce initiated an administrative review of mandatory respondents Shinkong Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (“Shinkong”) and Nan Ya. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews and Deferral of Initiation of Administrative Review, 75 Fed. Reg. 53,274, 53,275 (Dep’t of Commerce Aug. 31, 2010). Nan Ya cooperated in the prior review, and Commerce calculated an antidumping duty rate of 18.30 percent based on Nan Ya’s sales and cost data. See Polyethylene Terephthalate Film, Sheet, .and Strip From Taiwan, 76 Fed. Reg. 18,519, 18,520 (Dep’t of Commerce Apr. 4, 2011) (amended final results). In the present administrative review Nan Ya chose not to cooperate, failing to respond to Commerce’s request for information. Commerce therefore preliminarily assigned Nan Ya a total AFA rate of 99.31 percent derived from two transaction-specific margins that were calculated for Nan Ya during the prior administrate review. See Polyethylene Terephthalate Film, Sheet, and Strip from Taiwan, 76 [1351]*1351Fed. Reg. 47,540 (Dep’t of Commerce Aug. 5, 2011) (preliminary results); Decision Memorandum at 5.

Before the agency, Nan Ya argued that Commerce did not adequately corroborate the total AFA rate, and that Commerce should instead select Nan Ya’s total AFA rate from data available on the current administrative review, and more specifically, the transaction-specific data of the cooperating respondent, Shinkong. Nan Ya Admin. Case Br. at 7, PD 23 (Oct. 4, 2011).2 In the Final Results Commerce obliged, selecting the highest transaction-specific margin from among Shinkong’s data — 74.34 percent — as Nan Ya’s total AFA rate. See Memorandum from Gene H. Calvert to Mark Hoadley, Final Results in the Antidumping Duty Administrative Review of Polyethylene Terephthalate Film, Sheet, and Strip from Taiwan: Assignment of the Adverse Facts Available Rate for Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, Ltd. (Nan Ya), CD 27 (Dec. 5, 2011) (“Final AFA Memo ”). Commerce corroborated the 74.34 percent rate against Nan Ya’s own transaction-specific margins from the prior review, and found multiple transactions at or above the 74.34 percent rate. Id. at 3. Nan Ya now challenges the total AFA rate of 74.34 percent as “an unlawful aberrant outlier” and not reflecting Nan Ya’s “commercial reality albeit with some built in increase to induce compliance.” Pl.’s Br. at 3.

III. Discussion

In a total adverse facts available scenario like the one presented here, Commerce typically cannot calculate an anti-dumping rate for an uncooperative respondent because the information required for such a calculation (the respondent’s sales and cost information for the subject merchandise during the period of review) has not been provided. As a substitute, Commerce relies on various “secondary” sources of information (the petition, the final determination from the investigation, prior administrative reviews, or any other information placed on the record), 19 U.S.C. § 1677e(b) & (c), to select a proxy that should be a “reasonably accurate estimate of the respondent’s actual rate, albeit with some built-in increase intended as a deterrent to noncompliance.” F.lli De Ceceo Di Filippo Fara S. Martino S.p.A. v. United States, 216 F.3d 1027, 1032 (Fed.Cir.2000) (“De Ceceo ”). When selecting an appropriate total AFA proxy, “Commerce must balance the statutory objectives of finding an accurate dumping margin and inducing compliance.... ” Timken Co. v. United States,

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906 F. Supp. 2d 1348, 2013 WL 452744, 34 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 2595, 2013 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 22, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nan-ya-plastics-corp-v-united-states-cit-2013.