AD/CVD Court Decisions in First Half of July 2010

The Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made the following antidumping and countervailing duty law determinations in the first half of July 2010.

CIT Upholds SKF’s Lower Margin in Ball Bearings Remand, Rejects 15-Day Interval for Liquidation Instructions Again

SKF USA Inc. and its European affiliates prevailed in their challenge of the final results in the AD administrative review of ball bearings and parts thereof from France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK for the period May 1, 2006 through April 30, 2007. In a March, 2010 remand, the CIT ordered the International Trade Administration to recalculate the value of SKF’s merchandise without applying an adverse inference, as it did earlier because an SKF supplier gave a questionnaire response 3 days late. As a result of the remand, SKF’s margin dropped to 1.97% from 4.15%, and the court upheld these results.

In response to SKF’s other claim, against the ITA’s practice of issuing liquidation instructions within 15 days of the final results of administrative reviews, the court granted “declaratory relief,” an expression of the judge’s opinion without legal effect, since no monetary claims or legal precedent were at issue. (See ITT’s online archives or 01/05/10 news, 10010550, for an earlier court opinion on why the 15-day interval for issuing liquidation instructions is insufficient.) http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op10/10-76.PDF

Japanese Ball Bearings Makers Lose on Zeroing, Model Match Issues

In another case arising from the 2006 -- 2007 ball bearings review, four Japanese manufacturers, JTEKT, Koyo Corp. NTN Bearing Corp. of America, and Aisin Seiki Corp. challenged the ITA’s use of “zeroing,” or eliminating negative dumping margins when calculating a weighted average margin, and contested several aspects of the ITA’s model-match methodology. However, the court upheld the ITA’s final results in both regards. http://www.cit.uscourts.gov/slip_op/Slip_op10/10-75.pdf

Appeals Court Backs ITC and Lower Court Rulings on Threat from Diamond Sawblades Imports

Saint Gobain Abrasives, Inc. and Ehwa Diamond Industrial Co., Ltd. challenged two CIT decisions 1) remanding for further consideration an ITC determination that the U.S. diamond sawblade industry was not under threat of material injury from imports from Korea and China; and 2) upholding the ITC’s subsequent remand determination that there was in fact a threat of injury to the U.S. industry. The appeals court backed the CIT’s rulings upholding the ITC’s actions. As a result of the final disposition of this appeal, domestic manufacturers will now be able to proceed with separate litigation at the CIT contesting parts of the ITA’s less-than-fair-value investigation of diamond sawblades from China. See ITT’s Online Archives or 04/26/10 news, 10042622, for BP summary of the CIT decision delaying the domestic manufacturers’ case pending the St. Gobain appeal. http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/images/stories/opinions-orders/09-1274.pdf