Xiping Opeck Food Co. v. United States

378 F. Supp. 3d 1340, 2019 CIT 50
CourtUnited States Court of International Trade
DecidedApril 26, 2019
DocketSlip Op. 19–50; Court 17-00260
StatusPublished

This text of 378 F. Supp. 3d 1340 (Xiping Opeck Food Co. 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
Xiping Opeck Food Co. v. United States, 378 F. Supp. 3d 1340, 2019 CIT 50 (cit 2019).

Opinion

Eaton, Judge:

Plaintiff Xiping Opeck Food Co., Ltd. ("Plaintiff" or "Xiping") moves for judgment on the agency record, pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1516a (2012), challenging the United States Department of Commerce's ("Commerce" or the "Department") final results of its administrative review of the antidumping duty order covering freshwater crawfish tail meat from China. See Freshwater Crawfish Tail Meat From the People's Rep. of China , 82 Fed. Reg. 47,469 (Dep't Commerce Oct. 12, 2017) ("Final Results"), and accompanying Issues and Dec. Mem. (Oct. 5, 2017), P.R. 142 ("Final IDM"). The period of review ("POR") was September 1, 2015 through August 31, 2016.

Xiping, an exporter of crawfish tail meat from China, 1 objects to Commerce's rejection of untimely filed surrogate country financial statements from Thailand. Plaintiff also contends that the South African financial statements, on which Commerce relied, were "insufficiently disaggregated," and, therefore, could not serve as a proper basis for a normal value calculation. See Pl.'s Br. Supp. Mot. J. Agency R., ECF No. 24 ("Pl.'s Br.") 1; Pl.'s Reply Br., ECF No. 28.

The court has jurisdiction pursuant to 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(a)(2)(B)(iii) and 28 U.S.C. § 1581 (c) (2012). Because Commerce did not abuse its discretion by rejecting the untimely filed financial statements, and Plaintiff failed to exhaust its administrative remedies when disputing the use of the South African financial statements. Commerce's Final Results are sustained.

BACKGROUND

In September 1997, Commerce issued its antidumping duty order on freshwater crawfish tail meat from China. See *1342 Freshwater Crawfish Tail Meat From the People's Rep. of China , 62 Fed. Reg. 41,347 (Dep't Commerce Aug. 1, 1997), amended by Freshwater Crawfish Tail Meat From the People's Rep. of China , 62 Fed. Reg. 48,218 (Dep't Commerce Sept. 15, 1997). On September 8, 2016, the Department published a notice of opportunity to request an administrative review of the order for the POR. See Opportunity To Request Admin. Rev. , 81 Fed. Reg. 62,096 (Dep't Commerce Sept. 8, 2016).

Petitioner, Crawfish Processors Alliance (the "Alliance"), responded to the notice and asked Commerce to review, among others, Hubei Nature Agriculture Co., Ltd. ("Hubei"), Yancheng Hi-King Agriculture Developing Co., Ltd. ("Yancheng Hi-King"), and Xiping, all Chinese producers or exporters of crawfish tail meat. See Req. Admin. Rev. (Sept. 30, 2016), P.R. 3 ("Alliance Req.") at 1-2. Hubei, having sold subject merchandise from China to the United States during the POR, asked for a review of its dumping margin. See Req. Admin. Rev. (Sept. 29, 2016), P.R. 2 at 2 ("Hubei Req.") at 2.

On November 9, 2016, Commerce initiated its review of eleven exporters and producers. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Admin. Rev. , 81 Fed. Reg. 78,778 (Dep't Commerce Nov. 9, 2016) ; Alliance Req. at 1. The Department subsequently selected Yancheng Hi-King and Hubei as mandatory respondents for individual examination because they had "the largest volume of exports of subject merchandise during the POR." Respondent Selection 2015-2016 Antidumping Duty Admin. Rev. (Dec. 8, 2016), P.R. 31 ("Resp. Selection Mem.") at 5.

On November 29, 2016, Commerce provided interested parties the opportunity to comment on the surrogate country list, the selection of a surrogate country, and the selection of surrogate values. See Req. Surrogate County & Surrogate Value Comments & Info. (Nov. 29, 2016), P.R. 20 at 1 ("Req. Surr. Country Info."); Selection Surrogate Countries (Dec. 6, 2016), P.R. 24 (identifying Brazil, Mexico, Romania, Bulgaria, South Africa, and Thailand as potential surrogate countries with economic development similar to that of China). Hubei and the Alliance submitted comments concerning the selection of a surrogate country on March 3, 2017. See Surrogate Country Selection Comments (Mar. 3, 2017), P.R. 90 ("Hubei Comments"); Surrogate Country Selection Comments (Mar. 3, 2017), P.R. 91 ("Alliance Comments"). Hubei asked the Department to select "Thailand as the primary surrogate country for the factors of production and Spain for the import data for the valuation of live crawfish." Hubei Comments at 2. The Alliance, however, contested the suitability of Thailand as the primary surrogate, and urged the Department to choose "South Africa as the primary surrogate for values other than whole crawfish and scrap." Alliance Comments at 4.

Although an interested party within the meaning of the statute, Xiping placed no information on the record and filed no comments. See 19 C.F.R. §§ 351.102 (b)(29), 351.301(a) (2016) ; Yangzhou Bestpak Gifts & Crafts Co. v. United States , 716 F.3d 1370 , 1373 (Fed. Cir. 2013) ("Non-mandatory respondents also have the option of voluntarily completing the antidumping questionnaire to seek individual investigation."). On March 17, 2017, Hubei and the Alliance timely placed surrogate value information on the record, reflecting their respective positions as to the most appropriate surrogate country. See Surrogate Values (Mar. 17, 2017), P.R. 96 ("Alliance Surr. Values"); Hubei Surrogate Values Submissions (Mar. 17, 2017), P.R. 98 ("Hubei Surr. Values"). The Alliance's record submissions covered whole crawfish; shell and scrap; overhead, SG &

*1343 A, 2 and profit; and electricity, and included financial statements from the South African seafood processor Oceana Group (the "Oceana Report").

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