Seah Steel Vina Corporation v. United States

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
DecidedFebruary 14, 2020
Docket19-1091
StatusPublished

This text of Seah Steel Vina Corporation v. United States (Seah Steel Vina Corporation 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
Seah Steel Vina Corporation v. United States, (Fed. Cir. 2020).

Opinion

Case: 19-1091 Document: 80-2 Page: 1 Filed: 01/27/2020

United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ______________________

SEAH STEEL VINA CORPORATION, Plaintiff-Appellant

v.

UNITED STATES, UNITED STATES STEEL CORPORATION, Defendants-Appellees

TMK IPSCO, VALLOUREC STAR, L.P., WELDED TUBE USA INC., BOOMERANG TUBE LLC, ENERGEX TUBE (A DIVISION OF JMC STEEL GROUP), TEJAS TUBULAR PRODUCTS, MAVERICK TUBE CORPORATION, Defendants ______________________

2019-1091 ______________________

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:14-cv-00224-RWG, 1:14-cv-00259-RWG, Senior Judge Richard W. Goldberg. ______________________

SEALED OPINION ISSUED: January 27, 2020 PUBLIC OPINION ISSUED: February 14, 2020 *

* This opinion was originally filed under seal and has been unsealed in full. Case: 19-1091 Document: 80-2 Page: 2 Filed: 01/27/2020

______________________

JEFFREY M. WINTON, Law Office of Jeffrey M. Winton PLLC, Washington, DC, argued for plaintiff-appellant.

DOUGLAS GLENN EDELSCHICK, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Jus- tice, Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee United States. Also represented by JOSEPH H. HUNT, CLAUDIA BURKE, JEANNE DAVIDSON; BRENDAN SASLOW, Of- fice of the Chief Counsel for Trade Enforcement and Com- pliance, United States Department of Commerce, Washington, DC.

THOMAS M. BELINE, Cassidy Levy Kent USA LLP, Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee United States Steel Corporation. Also represented by MYLES SAMUEL GETLAN, SARAH E. SHULMAN, JAMES EDWARD RANSDELL, IV. ______________________

Before NEWMAN, SCHALL, and WALLACH, Circuit Judges. WALLACH, Circuit Judge. Appellant SeAH Steel VINA Corporation (“SeAH”) sued Appellee the United States (“Government”) in the U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”), challenging the U.S. Department of Commerce’s (“Commerce”) final deter- mination of an antidumping duty investigation covering certain oil country tubular goods (“OCTG”) from the Social- ist Republic of Vietnam (“Vietnam”). See Certain Oil Coun- try Tubular Goods From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 79 Fed. Reg. 41,973, 41,973 (July 18, 2014) (final determi- nation) (“Final Determination”), as amended by Certain Oil Country Tubular Goods From the Socialist Republic of Vi- etnam, 79 Fed. Reg. 53,691 (Sept. 10, 2014) (order and amended final determination). The CIT remanded the case Case: 19-1091 Document: 80-2 Page: 3 Filed: 01/27/2020

SEAH STEEL VINA CORPORATION v. UNITED STATES 3

twice to Commerce, SeAH Steel VINA Corp. v. United States (SeAH I), 182 F. Supp. 3d 1316, 1345 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2016); SeAH Steel VINA Corp. v. United States (SeAH II), 269 F. Supp. 3d 1335, 1365 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2017), and sus- tained Commerce’s second redetermination on remand, see SeAH Steel VINA Corp. v. United States (SeAH III), 332 F. Supp. 3d 1314, 1318 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2018) (Opinion and Order); see also J.A. 3011–46 (Redetermination II); J.A. 2942–69 (Redetermination I). SeAH appeals. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(5) (2012). We affirm-in-part, reverse-in- part, and remand. BACKGROUND I. Legal Framework Antidumping duties may be imposed on “foreign mer- chandise” that “is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than its fair value.” 19 U.S.C. § 1673 (2012). 1 Antidumping duties are a trade remedy “imposed to protect [domestic] industries against unfair trade practices.” Ca- nadian Wheat Bd. v. United States, 641 F.3d 1344, 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2011). Domestic industries may seek “relief from imports that are sold in the United States at less than fair value,” Allegheny Ludlum Corp. v. United States, 287 F.3d 1365, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2002), by filing a petition with

1 In June 2015, Congress amended the statutes con- taining the antidumping provisions. See Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (“TPEA”), Pub. L. No. 114-27, §§ 501–07, 129 Stat. 362, 383–87. While we review the Fi- nal Determination in accordance with the TPEA because it issued after the TPEA became effective, unless stated oth- erwise, we cite to the U.S. Code version of the statute as there are no material changes in the TPEA for purposes of this appeal. See Juancheng Kangtai Chem. Co. v. United States, 932 F.3d 1321, 1323 n.1 (Fed. Cir. 2019). Case: 19-1091 Document: 80-2 Page: 4 Filed: 01/27/2020

Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”) to initiate an antidumping duty investigation, see 19 U.S.C. §§ 1673a(b), 1677(9)(C). Following investigation, if Commerce determines that imported merchandise “is be- ing, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than its fair value,” id. § 1673(1), and the ITC determines that the importation or sale of that merchandise has “materially injured” or “threaten[s]” to “materially injur[e]” an indus- try in the United States, id. § 1673(2), then Commerce will “publish an antidumping duty order . . . direct[ing] [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] to assess . . . antidumping dut[ies]” on subject merchandise, id. § 1673e(a)(1). Commerce “determine[s] the estimated weighted aver- age dumping margin for each exporter and producer indi- vidually investigated” and “the estimated all-others rate for all exporters and producers not individually investi- gated.” Id. § 1673d(c)(1)(B)(i). A dumping margin reflects the amount by which the “‘normal value’ (the price a pro- ducer charges in its home market) exceeds the ‘export price’ (the price of the product in the United States) or ‘con- structed export price.’” U.S. Steel Corp. v. United States, 621 F.3d 1351, 1353 (Fed. Cir. 2010) (footnote omitted) (cit- ing 19 U.S.C. § 1677(35)(A)); see 19 U.S.C. §§ 1677b(a)(1) (defining “normal value” as “the price at which the [mer- chandise] is first sold . . . for consumption” in the home country or third country), 1677a(b) (defining “constructed export price” as “the price at which the subject merchan- dise is first sold . . . in the United States” to “a purchaser not affiliated with the producer or exporter”). If Commerce finds that the exporting country is a “non- market economy” (“NME”) country 2 and “that available

2 An NME country is “any foreign country that [Com- merce] determines does not operate on market principles of cost or pricing structures, so that sales of merchandise in such country do not reflect the fair value of the Case: 19-1091 Document: 80-2 Page: 5 Filed: 01/27/2020

SEAH STEEL VINA CORPORATION v. UNITED STATES 5

information does not permit the normal value of the subject merchandise to be determined under [§ 1677b(a)],” then Commerce calculates normal value using surrogate values for the “factors of production” in a comparable “market economy country.” Id. § 1677b(c)(1).

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