NTN Bearing Corp. of America v. United States

17 Ct. Int'l Trade 713, 826 F. Supp. 1435, 17 C.I.T. 713, 15 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1926, 1993 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 130
United States Court of International Trade·Decided July 13, 1993·No. Court No. 91-08-00577·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinion

Opinion

Tsoucalas, Judge:

Plaintiffs, NTN Bearing Corporation of America, American NTN Bearing Manufacturing Corp. and NTN Corporation (“NTN”), move pursuant to Rule 56.1 of the Rules of this Court for partial judgment on the agency record as to Counts I, II, IY VII, X, XI, XIII and XVII of their complaint claiming that the Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration (“Commerce” or “ITA”), (1) failed to correct errors in its determination which lead to tainted proceedings and unfairly high and inaccurate antidumping margins; (2) incorrectly calculated the variable costs of manufacturing merchandise sold in the home market due to an error in its program; (3) incorrectly [714]*714rejected NTN’s actual costs of production in favor of other “best information available”; (4) incorrectly included a theoretical amount for idled machinery not used in production and an amount representing NTN’s loss on the disposal of fixed assets; (5) erroneously calculated margins on several sales to one purchase price customer twice due to the use of both an original and a revised tape; and (6) failed to publish an amended final determination.

The administrative determination under review is the ITA’s final results in Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof From Japan; Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews (“Final Results”), 56 Fed. Reg. 31,754 (1991). Substantive issues raised by NTN in the underlying administrative proceeding were addressed by the ITA in the Issues Appendix to Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof From the Federal Republic of Germany; Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review (“Issues Appendix”), 56 Fed. Reg. 31,692 (1991).

Background

On June 11, 1990, the ITA initiated an administrative review of ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, spherical plain bearings and parts thereof from Japan. Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof From the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Romania, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the United Kingdom Initiation of Antidumping Administrative Reviews, 55 Fed. Reg. 23,575 (1990). NTN participated in this review. Id.

On March 15, 1991, the ITA published its preliminary determination in the administrative review. Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts thereof from Japan; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews and Partial Termination of Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews, 56 Fed. Reg. 11,186 (1991).

On July 11, 1991, the ITA published its Final Results in this proceeding. Final Results, 56 Fed. Reg. at 31,754.

Discussion

In reviewing a final determination of Commerce, this Court must uphold that determination unless it is “unsupported by substantial evidence on the record, or otherwise not in accordance with law.” 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(b)(1)(B) (1988). Substantial evidence has been defined as being “more than a mere scintilla. It means such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a conclusion.” Universal Camera Corp. v. NLRB, 340 U.S. 474, 477 (1951) (quoting Consolidated Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197, 229 (1938)). It is “not within the Court’s domain either to weigh the adequate quality or quantity of the evidence for sufficiency or to reject a finding on grounds of a differing interpretation of the record.” Timken Co. v. United States, [715]*71512 CIT 955, 962, 699 F. Supp. 300, 306 (1988), aff'd, 894 F.2d 385 (Fed. Cir. 1990).

1. Clerical Errors (Counts I and II):

First, NTN claims that Commerce committed various clerical errors. In its questionnaire for this review, issued on June 1, 1990 (Section A) and July 17, 1990 (Sections B-E), Commerce requested that respondents classify hearings based on certain criteria, including precision rating, into families. In its response to section B, NTN identified many different families and supplied a list of U.S. sales. On March 15, 1991, Commerce published its preliminary results and on April 11, 1991 NTN submitted its case brief detailing its comments to the preliminary results. NTN contends that at this stage it had “discovered two instances in the U.S. sales database for ball bearings (ESP transactions) which required a further explanation or a correction of information already on the record.” Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Judgment on the Agency Record (“Plaintiffs’Motion”) at 11.

Specifically, NTN claims that the family code for five part numbers sold to the same U.S. customer incorrectly showed them to meet high precision bearing tolerances, rather than the standard precision bearing tolerances. NTN claims that this alleged error caused an inaccurate price differential and larger dumping margins.

The second alleged clerical error identified by NTN on April 11, 1991, involved four transactions which were reported as sales for U.S. consumption in NTN’s response. NTN now asserts that these sales were made to a Canadian customer.

Accordingto 19 U.S.C. § 1675(f) (1988 & Supp. 1993), Commerce is afforded the discretion to correct clerical errors in final determinations “within a reasonable time after the determinations are issued.” Commerce has promulgated a regulation which sets time limits on the submission of factual information in administrative reviews. The regulation states in pertinent part:

§ 353.31 Submission of factual information.

(a) Time limits in general. (1) Except as provided in paragraphs (a)(2) and (b) of this section, submissions of factual information for the Secretary’s consideration shall be submitted not later than:

(1) For the Secretary’s final determination, seven days before the scheduled date on which the verification is to commence;
(ii) For the Secretary’s final results of an administrative review under § 353.22 (c) or (f), the earlier of the date of publication of notice of preliminary results of review or 180 days after the date of publication of notice of initiation of the review; * * *
}J< * * # # ❖ #
(2) Any interested party * * * may submit factual information to rebut, clarify, or correct factual information submitted by an interested party * * * at any time prior to the deadline provided in this section for submission of such factual information or, if later, 10 [716]*716days after the date such factual information is served on the interested party * * *.
(3) The Secretary will not consider in the final determination or the final results, or retain in the record of the proceeding, any factual information submitted after the applicable time limit. * * *

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NTN Bearing Corp. of America v. United States, 17 Ct. Int'l Trade 713, 826 F. Supp. 1435, 17 C.I.T. 713, 15 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1926, 1993 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 130 (cit 1993).

17 Ct. Int'l Trade 713 (NTN Bearing Corp. of America v. United States) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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