CIT Returns China Diamond Sawblades to ITA over Steel Values, Rate for Gov't-Owned Firm

Chinese producers challenged the International Trade Administration’s 2006 less-than-fair-value determination on diamond sawblades and parts thereof from China: the use of “zeroing” (the elimination of non-dumped transactions from the margin calculation), the choice of a particular Indian surrogate firm for expense and profit ratios, and the valuation of steel inputs. Domestic producers challenged the ITA’s country-of-origin determination and the award of a separate rate to Advanced Technology & Materials Co. Ltd. and its affiliates (ATM), but the Court of International Trade dismissed all complaints except the steel valuation and the separate rates decision, both of which it remanded to the ITA.

Declaring itself “mystified” by the ITA’s approach in ignoring the Chinese government’s ownership, through parent companies, of 100% of ATM’s shares, and the resulting danger of price manipulation, the court also faulted the ITA’s failure to accurately cite comparable cases of separate rate awards for firms under government shareholder control.

(Slip Op. 11-122, dated 10/12/11, public version posted subsequently)