Papierfabrik August Koehler Se v. United States

843 F.3d 1373, 38 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1624, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 22347, 2016 WL 7321394
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedDecember 16, 2016
Docket2015-1489
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 843 F.3d 1373 (Papierfabrik August Koehler Se 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
Papierfabrik August Koehler Se v. United States, 843 F.3d 1373, 38 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1624, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 22347, 2016 WL 7321394 (Fed. Cir. 2016).

Opinion

TARANTO, Circuit Judge.

This case involves the U.S. Department of Commerce’s review of imports of lightweight thermal paper from Germany be *1376 tween November 1, 2010, and October 31, 2011, the third year covered by an applicable antidumping duty order. In the review, the German firm Papierfabrik August Koehler SE (Koehler) was the only respondent. Commerce discovered midway through the review that Koehler had engaged in a scheme resulting in the omission of some German-market sales from the information Koehler had supplied to Commerce, thereby altering the home-market prices that are compared to U.S. prices to measure the dumping margin. Because of that misconduct, Commerce deemed Koehler’s data unreliable and made adverse inferences against Koehler. Commerce adopted the highest dumping margin cited in the petition that launched the original investigation, relying for corroboration on sales data Koehler had submitted in the second-year review. See Lightweight Thermal Paper from Germany: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2010-2011, 78 Fed. Reg. 23,220 (Dep’t of Commerce Apr. 18, 2013). The Court of International Trade approved Commerce’s determination. Papierfabrik August Koehler S.E. v. United States, 7 F.Supp,3d 1304 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2014), motion to amend the judgment denied, 44 F.Supp.3d 1356 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2015), Concluding that Commerce permissibly exercised its considerable discretion, we affirm.

I

Acting under 19 U.S.C. § 1675, in response to the request of Appvion, Inc. (formerly known as Appleton Papers, Inc.), Commerce initiated this third administrative review of its antidumping duty order covering lightweight thermal paper from Germany on December 30, 2011. Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews and Request for Revocation in Part, 76 Fed. Reg.,82,268 (Dep’t of Commerce Dec. 30, 2011). Koeh-ler responded to Section A of Commerce’s antidumping questionnaire on February 21, 2012, and Sections B and C on their due date, February 27, 2012. Koehler’s responses included aggregate information about the quantity and value of Koehler’s home-market sales, as well as a database of information about individual home-market sales transactions. Due to “questions which ha[d] not been answered adequately, and areas where clarification of the submitted information [was] required,” Commerce issued a supplemental questionnaire on May 16, 2012. J.A. 489-94. On May 18, 2012, Appvion filed an affidavit from a confidential source asserting that Koehler was engaged in a transshipment scheme, whereby it was shipping goods destined for its home^ market through other markets so that those sales would not be reported as home-market sales to Commerce. Appvion also placed on the record certain sales data submitted by Koehler in the second administrative review (covering November 1, 2009, to October 31, 2010).

Koehler requested two extensions of time to respond to the May 16 supplemental questionnaire. On May 24, 2012, Koeh-ler sought a two-week extension due to the temporary absence of key personnel, the time required to translate documents, and the difficulty of reviewing the many documents involved. Commerce granted that extension due to the “unique circumstances.” On June 4, 2012, Koehler sought a further three-week extension to respond to the supplemental questionnaire and to allow outside counsel to investigate the transshipment allegations. Commerce agreed in part, again citing “unique circumstances.”

Koehler finally responded to the supplemental questionnaire on June 27, 2012, the *1377 new deadline. Along with its response, Koehler admitted that its employees had knowingly transshipped certain orders that should have been reported as home-market sales, and it proffered an updated home-market sales database that it alleged included those sales. Although Commerce accepted the supplemental questionnaire responses and allowed Koehler to correct some inadvertent errors in the originally submitted home-market data, it refused to accept the updated home-market sales data that included the omitted, transshipped sales. Commerce explained that the supplemental questionnaire had requested only clarification, not new data; that Koehler’s new data was untimely; and that Koehler had not shown good cause for extending the deadline for data submission.

Commerce- published its preliminary results on December 11, 2012, Lightweight Thermal Paper From Germany; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2010-2011, 77 Fed. Reg. 73,615 (Dep’t of Commerce Dec. 11, 2012), and its final results on April 18, 2013, Lightweight Thermal Paper from Germany: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2010-2011, 78 Fed. Reg. 23,220 (Dep’t of Commerce Apr. 18, 2013). In its April 10 Issues and Decision Memorandum accompanying the final results, Commerce found that Koehler had withheld information, failed to provide information in a timely manner, significantly impeded the proceeding, and provided information that could not be verified, and that Koehler also had failed to cooperate to the best of its ability. J.A. 1935-36. On those bases, Commerce invoked its authority under 19 U.S.C. § 1677e(a) and (b), see Statement of Administrative Action, H.R. Rep. No. 103-316, vol. 1, at-868-70 (1994), as reprinted in 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4040, 4198-99 (deemed “authoritative” by 19 U.S.C. § 3512(d)), and concluded that it would draw inferences adverse to Koehler. J.A. 1935-36.

With respect to the data that Koehler timely submitted, Commerce found that “[t]he extent of Koehler’s material misrepresentation in this case rendered Koehler’s questionnaire responses wholly unreliable and unusable.” J.A. 1937. While Commerce acknowledged. that “Koehler took certain measures after the allegation was made by Petitioner and acknowledged by Koehler,” it “d[id] not find that.such actions taken by Koehler restore[d] [its] confidence in .the reliability of [Koehler’s] home market sales data submitted for this review* especially given the extent of the fraudulent activity involved in this transshipment scheme.” J.A. 1942. Commerce also noted that “Koehler did not reveal its transshipment scheme voluntarily; it did so only after [Appvion’s] May 18, 2012, allegation” and that it “believe[d] it unlikely that Koehler would have provided information about the transshipment scheme and the omitted sales were it not for [Appvion’s] allegation.” J.A. 1941.

Having rejected Koehler’s timely-submitted data, Commerce chose to adopt, as the dumping margin it would apply to Koehler, the highest margin -rate alleged in Appvion’s petition, 75.36%. See 19 U.S.C. § 1677e(b)(1) (2012) (“an adverse inference may include reliance on information -derived from ... the petition”). Commerce then found corroboration for that figure in the fact that it fell within the range of transaction-specific margins calculated from data Koehler had submitted in the second administrative review, where the margins ranged from less than zero to 144.63%. See

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843 F.3d 1373, 38 I.T.R.D. (BNA) 1624, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 22347, 2016 WL 7321394, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/papierfabrik-august-koehler-se-v-united-states-cafc-2016.