CAFC Issues Mandate Upholding Separate Rate in AD Review Through Average of AFA, de Minimis

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its mandate in an antidumping duty case after ruling that the Commerce Department can calculate the separate rate respondent's dumping margin by averaging an adverse facts available rate and a de minimis rate. The case concerns the seventh administrative review of the ADD order on diamond sawblades from China. In the review, Commerce tapped Jiangsu Fengtai Single Entity and Chengdu Huifeng New Material as the mandatory respondents, handing them an AFA China-wide 82.05% rate and zero percent rate, respectively, then assigned an average of those two rates to the separate rate respondents (Bosun Tools Co. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. #21-1929, -1930).

The plaintiffs, led by Bosun Tools, appealed to CIT, which eventually sustained the 41.025% rate. The appellate court affirmed, holding that the separate rates in the past AD reviews trended upward, justifying the 41.025% dumping rate (see 2201100026). The March 3 mandate confirms this ruling.