Commerce's Use of Turkish Lira During Period of Hyperinflation Unlawful, Importer Argues at CIT

The Commerce Department's decision to use the Turkish lira value of home market sales rather than the U.S. dollar in an antidumping duty review deviated from the agency's standard practice and distorted an exporter's AD duty rate, the exporter, Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi, said in an Oct. 20 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi A.S. v. United States, CIT #21-00527).

Habas challenged the final results of the 2018-19 administrative review of the AD order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Turkey. During the review, Habas told Commerce that it was having trouble responding to the case's questionnaire because Turkey was experiencing hyperinflation. It said Commerce strayed from its normal practice of relying on the U.S. dollar when valuing home market sales and used the value of the Turkish lira, with Commerce stating these were the only sale values that can be directly tied to the audited financial records.

The respondent argued that Commerce has consistently calculated margins using the U.S. dollar home market price, the use of lira values is "particularly distortive in the present review" due to the hyperinflation, and Commerce's use of the accounting currency rather than the transaction currency for home market price was unlawful. The agency disagreed and gave Habas a 24.32% weighted-average dumping margin.

While "transaction currency" is not defined by the statute or Commerce's regulations, the agency's longstanding practice is to use the currency of the sales price based on the currency that controls the ultimate amount a purchaser pays for the sale, Habas said. In particular, Commerce uses the dollar because the transaction price is fixed in dollars at the time of invoicing and controls the ultimate amount the purchaser pays.