CVD Plaintiffs Ask CIT to Note Case Where Commerce Verified Non-Use of China's EBCP

Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan) and Riverside Plywood, two plaintiffs in a countervailing duty case, submitted a notice of supplemental authority saying the Commerce Department has shown it can verify non-use of China's Export Buyer's Credit Program (EBCP) even without information from the Chinese government. Because Commerce has done so in a different CVD investigation following the submission of standard supplemental questionnaire responses, verification is possible in the current case, the plaintiffs told the Court of International Trade (Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo and Wood Industry Co. v. U.S., CIT #20-03885).

The dispute arises from Commerce's 2017 CVD administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China. In the review, Commerce said the respondents' U.S. customers benefited from China's EBCP. As it has done in many cases, Commerce applied adverse facts available over its inability to verify whether the U.S. customers used the program, arguing that it needed certain information from the Chinese government to verify non-use, which the government didn't provide. The trade court has repeatedly struck down this position. However, in a separate CVD investigation on mobile access equipment from China, Commerce said it was able to verify non-use without this information (see 2110140053). "Counsel intends to discuss this case in response to the Court’s questions at Oral Argument on March 33, 2022," the notice said.