OCP Accuses ITC of Mishandling CVD Injury Investigation

OCP, a Moroccan state-owned fertilizer maker, asked the Court of International Trade to order the International Trade Commission to reconsider its determination of injury. OCP's March 3 motion accuses the ITC of failing to consider arguments and evidence in the countervailing duty investigation of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia. The ITC determined in March 2021 that Morocco was subsidizing phosphate fertilization and that U.S. domestic industry was materially injured (OCP S.A. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 21-00219).

OCP now argues that the ITC dismissed its traditional pricing data analysis, favored "anecdotal evidence" and based its findings on prices alone without considering counter evidence on the record. The ITC "offered logically and factually infirm" reasons for dismissing evidence in favor of the respondents, including OCP. The motion argues the ITC ignored OCP’s arguments and failed to address them, in violation of its duty to "explain its actions on the record." OCP said the ITC didn't address respondents' arguments of a fertilizer supply gap during the ITC investigation but then argued that it “found no such gap" during the current CIT case. By declining to address the issue during the course of the investigation, OCP said, the ITC failed to link Moroccan subsidies of fertilizer to U.S. injury and thereby failed to meet its requirement for a determination of injury.