CIT Upholds ITC Injury Finding in German Thermal Paper Remand Results

The Court of International Trade has upheld the results of a remand order from the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in which the International Trade Commission determined anew that imports of lightweight thermal paper (LWTP) from Germany threaten the domestic industry with injury.

In a strongly dissented decision, the CAFC had ordered the ITC to review its determination that the domestic industry was threatened with injury from German imports, using sales and price data on subcategories of subject merchandise rather than only industry-wide dumping margins and price trends. In the resulting remand results, however, the ITC concluded that both 48 gram-per-meter LWTP and 55-gram-per-meter paper are dumped, or will be dumped, on the U.S. market in direct response to market competition, and affirmed its injury determination.

German producer/exporter Papierfabrik August Koehler AG and its U.S. affiliate Koehler America, Inc. argued that the remand results violated the mandate of the CAFC, but the CIT upheld the results, reasoning that the remand order was to examine and consider the price data on weight subcategories, not to reach a particular determination, noting “otherwise, no remand would have been necessary.”

(See ITT’s Online Archives 11052605 for summary of CAFC decision.)

(Slip Op. 12-5 dated 01/10/12)