CIT Upholds Finding That Certain Kitchen Cabinets Are Outside Scope of AD/CVD Orders

The Court of International Trade on May 27 upheld remand results from the Commerce Department that reversed a scope ruling that included ready-to-assemble kitchen cabinets in antidumping and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China. While the agency continued to hold the request for the scope ruling was specific enough, despite concerns in his initial remand from Judge Gary Katzmann, Commerce on further examination found that the scope requests lacked sufficient supporting evidence and explanation.

The agency found in its remand redetermination that the request was insufficiently supported because, "[Petitioner-Masterbrand] stated that [they] had additional, relevant information reasonably available to them ... which they did not supply; or ... they failed to supply information showing that the products in support of their allegation were in production."

In comments on the remand, plaintiff CNC Associates N.Y. said that it continued to disagree on Commerce's determination that the product descriptions were sufficient in the scope request but that it agrees that the scope determination was insufficient on other grounds. While Masterbrand disagreed with the conclusion, it noted that “the most effective and efficient way for [them] to address the scope questions ... is to refile any needed scope request with the agency.”