US Chemical Company Opposes Bid for Court Mediation in AD Spat

The risk of court-annexed mediation in an antidumping duty case "far outweighs the benefit," defendant-intervenor GEO Specialty Chemicals said in a March 14 brief opposing plaintiff Nagase & Co.'s bid for mediation, telling the trade court that it "vigorously" opposes Nagase's claim that an alleged error in Nakase's AD rate is easily correctable (Nagase & Co. v. United States, CIT #21-00574).

The case contests the final results in the first administrative review of the AD order on glycine from Japan. Nagase, along with its affiliated producer Yuki Gosei Kogyo Co., was one mandatory respondent in the review, which found Nakase dumped glycine into the U.S. market at a rate of 27.71%.

In the review, Commerce included Nagase's R&D expenses for goods other than glycine in its G&A expense ratio, and Commerce relied only on YGK's accounting practices from before the period of review -- practices that Nagase said have since changed (see 2111290029). The exporter argued that doing so violated the law because it made a factual finding that ran contrary to the agency's past practice of excluding R&D expenses for non-subject merchandise. Nagase also said that Commerce "inadvertently duplicated and reported" the incorrect U.S. duty amounts for Nagase's constructed export price sales, resulting in a "grossly inflated" assessment rate. Nagase moved for court-annexed mediation to resolve the issue of Commerce's liquidation instructions, which it views as a simple error in need of a quick fix (see 2203040053).

GEO argues the assessment rate is not a ministerial error. "Rather, it is a purely legal issue," the brief said. "Defendant would have easily consented to mediation if it agreed that the entered value it used was a clerical error. Further, the record contains no information as to what Plaintiff believes the correct entered values for Yuki Gosei Kogyo/Nagase’s constructed export price should be." Court mediation would further saddle litigants with an unnecessary burden and tie up significant time and resources for mediation that GEO nor the U.S. believe would lead to a "meaningful resolution of this claim," the brief said.

In fact, the AD assessment claim is "readily dismissible," GEO argued. Nagase already admitted to not bringing up its objections within the appropriate timelines, so it's "simply too late for Plaintiff to seek remedies before the Court here," the brief said. "It is even less appropriate for the Court to order parties to address Plaintiff’s dismissible claim through court-annexed mediation."