Plaintiffs, DOJ OK Antidumping Remand Results Switching Surrogate Ocean Freight Expense Data

The Commerce Department properly adhered to remand instructions from the Court of International Trade by relying on data from Xeneta XS over Maersk Line when calculating a company's surrogate ocean freight expenses in an antidumping administrative review on solar cells, both the Department of Justice and plaintiffs in the case agreed in two filings of comments on the remand results. The change in surrogate data selection led to a dumping margin of 5.08% for mandatory respondent Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co. and the separate rate respondents, many of whom are also plaintiffs in the case (Changzhou Trina Solar Energy Co., Ltd., et al. v. United States, CIT #18-00176).

The remand results stem from the fourth administrative review of the antidumping order on crystaline silicon photovoltaic cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from China. The second remand instructions, issued by Judge Claire Kelly, had told Commerce to "reconsider or further explain" its selection of Maersk over Xeneta in determining Trina's surrogate ocean freight expenses. Initially, Commerce selected data from Maersk over Xeneta since the Maersk data "prevented double counting of U.S. brokerage and handling expenses" and was more specific to solar panels. Kelly found both of these contentions unsupported, and also found evidence that she said "detracted from Commerce's selection of Maersk data," such as the fact that Maersk's data does not cover all shipping routes used by Trina.