Suramerica de Aleaciones Laminadas, C.A. v. United States

14 Ct. Int'l Trade 366
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedJune 7, 1990
DocketCourt No. 88-09-00726
StatusPublished

This text of 14 Ct. Int'l Trade 366 (Suramerica de Aleaciones Laminadas, C.A. 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
Suramerica de Aleaciones Laminadas, C.A. v. United States, 14 Ct. Int'l Trade 366 (cit 1990).

Opinion

Musgrave, Judge:

Because this case involves confidential business information, the present opinion was first issued solely to the parties involved so that they could identify any confidential information contained herein. The parties have agreed upon which parts of the opinion contain confidential information, and those parts have accordingly been deleted from this public version of the opinion; the public and confidential versions have equal and full effect and are identical in all other respects.

Defendant in this action moves (“Motion to Strike” or “Motion”) under Rule 12(f) of the CIT Rules to strike three different categories of statements or data from plaintiff Suramerica’s Memorandum in Support of Plaintiffs Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record (“Memorandum”) and from Plaintiffs Reply Memorandum in support thereof (“Reply”) (collectively, the “Memoranda”). Several of the portions sought to be struck were the subjects of another motion to strike filed earlier in this case by defendant. The portions sought to be struck are the following:

1. A footnote in Plaintiffs Reply that refers to a footnote in Plaintiff s Memorandum, which latter footnote refers to a periodical article that was allegedly published after the decision of the International Trade Commission (“Commission” or “ITC”) in this case and is therefore not contained in the administrative record;
[367]*3672. Several pages, almost in their entirety, of plaintiffs two Memo-randa containing a discussion of European Communities quota information — the defendant contends that the discussion consists of “arguments and facts that are not contained in the administrative record”; and
3. Citations in Plaintiffs Memoranda to various documents, statements, and phrases allegedly misstated or not stated in plaintiffs pre-hearing brief before the Commission.

A. Category 1. — In footnote 124 of Plaintiff s Memorandum, plaintiff cites to an article from the periodical Metals Week that was published after the Commission’s decision in this matter. In footnote 29 of Plaintiff s Reply, plaintiff cites, as support for a statement in the Reply, to the ITC Staff Report and appends to that citation a “see also” citation to plaintiffs initial Memorandum, pages 51-52 and notes 123 and 124. In an earlier motion to strike, defendant requested that the Court strike the Metals Week citation in note 124 of plaintiffs initial Memorandum because the article referred to was not before the ITC in its deliberations. Defendant now requests that note 29 of the Reply be struck as well, because of its reference to note 124 of the initial Memorandum.

Plaintiff concedes that the part of Memorandum note 124 contested by defendant “mistakenly contains information that is not part of the administrative record.” Plaintiffs Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Strike (“Opposition”) at 2, n.2.

The objectionable citation appears, however, at the end of the second of two independent paragraphs in that footnote; the first (and longer) of the two paragraphs contains citations solely to documents contained in the administrative record. There appears to be no reason to strike this unobjectionable material. Therefore, only the second of the two paragraphs in note 124 of the Memorandum will be struck from that document.

The reference in footnote 29 of the Reply Memorandum to note 124 of the initial Memorandum is, as noted, phrased in a “see also” form and immediately follows a citation to the Staff Report contained in the administrative record. The reference appears in the first of two paragraphs in note 29. That paragraph consists of four lines, all citations; the following paragraph contains seventeen lines, almost all of which are text. Out of the entire twenty-one lines of the footnote, then, the sole objectionable part is the phrase “n. 124” in the citation to the initial Memorandum. Defendant requests that the entire footnote in the Reply be deleted.

In the light of the relatively small portion of the whole footnote that the objectionable part represents, it seems unwarranted to strike the entire footnote as defendant requests. It is not necessary even to decide on that request, however, because of the fact that the Court in this order strikes the objectionable portion of note 124 of the initial Memorandum. As note 124 is thereby rendered unobjectionable, so it is unobjectionable to leave the reference to it in note 29 of the Reply.

[368]*368B. Category 2. — In category two of its request, defendant requests that two different portions of plaintiff s Memoranda be struck. First, defendant seeks to have struck pages 67-69 of plaintiffs initial Memorandum, with the exception of a single sentence on page 68. Defendant asserts that while “ [d] ocuments in the administrative record are cited to support some of the arguments and facts”, “in all but one case [the sentence mentioned above], only the general subject matter is reflected in these [sources cited] and not the stated facts.”

The discussion on those pages is a rebuttal by plaintiff of the allegation made by the petitioner before the ITC (Southwire Co.) that at the time of the events at issue in this action (1988), Venezuela (plaintiffs home country) had exceeded its quota for that year of non-dutiable rod exports to the European Communities. The ITC found that when the quota limits were exceeded, tariffs on EC rod imports increased dramatically, and stated, “Reportedly, Venezuela has already exceeded the nondutiable quotafor 1988.” ITC Final Determination, ITC Rec., List 1, Doc. 115 at 16 & n. 44. The Determination supports this finding by citing to “Petitioner’s Post Hearing Brief [before the ITC] at 9-10.” On page 10 ofits post-hearing brief, the petitioner stated, “Our understanding is that Venezuela has already exhausted its quota for 1988 and that the 10% duty is already in effect.” ITC Rec., List 1, Doc. 83. The significance of the allegation by Southwire is the inference that were the allegation true, plaintiffs exports prohibited from the EC by the quota ceiling would be diverted as exports to the United States. It appears that the ITC conducted no independent investigation of this allegation, but simply accepted Southwire’s “understanding”.

Plaintiff contends on page 66 of its Memorandum that the allegation was never investigated by the ITC, that the respondents (including plaintiff) had no chance to rebut it, and that it was untrue. Plaintiff also reproduces on that page a statement from the dissent of Commissioner Brunsdale that the allegation was insufficient to support a finding of threat of material injury to domestic industry, because “petitioner ha[d] not * * * supported its argument with the facts necessary to substantiate its contention * * Plaintiffs Memorandum at 66-67, quoting from Final Determination at 56.

On the pages of its Memorandum objected to by defendant, plaintiff rebuts the allegation that Venezuela had exceeded its EC quota and argues that even if it had, plaintiffs sales to the EC would not decrease. Plaintiff argues on page 68 that there was no basis for concluding that its sales would even be subject to the EC duty. Plaintiff states on page 69, “Sural [the plaintiff here] would have been able to prove, had it been allowed to do so, that the tariff quota has not curtailed Sural’s sales to [its major European customer].” The citations on the contested pages are to EC Regulations published in the

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Bluebook (online)
14 Ct. Int'l Trade 366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/suramerica-de-aleaciones-laminadas-ca-v-united-states-cit-1990.