No Stay in AD/CVD Anti-Circ Case Since Unrelated Appeal Will Not Dictate Case, Plaintiffs Argue

The Court of International Trade should not stay proceedings in an anti-circumvention inquiry challenge because, contrary to the U.S.'s contention, a case currently on appeal will not "dictate" the outcome of the case, plaintiffs HLDS (B) Steel and HLD Clark Steel Pipe Co. said in an April 4 reply brief. Unique elements of the case brought by the plaintiffs undercut DOJ's claim that the unrelated appeal will resolve the matter at hand, the brief said (HLDS (B) Steel SDN BHD v. United States, CIT #21-00638).

The case concerns the antidumping duty and countervailing duty anti-circumvention inquiry that covered welded oil country tubular goods (OCTG) made in Brunei and the Philippines using Chinese hot-rolled steel coils as a primary input. HLDS and HLD filed the case to challenge the Commerce Department's decision to compare two foreign manufacturers' production processes with integrated steel mills from China, among other things (see 2201240056).

DOJ wants the case stayed until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit comes to a solution in another anti-circumvention case involving corrosion-resistant steel products from China transshipped through the United Arab Emirates (see 2203150063). The case at the Federal Circuit was brought by Al Ghurair Iron & Steel.

"Plaintiffs are not familiar with the administrative record of the Al Ghurair case, which is possibly quite different from the record upon which Plaintiffs have based their appeal to this Court," the plaintiffs said. "In any event, differences in the production of the merchandise at issue in Al Ghurair, corrosion-resistant steel products ('CORE'), and Plaintiffs’ production of oil country tubular goods ('OCTG') necessitate a different analysis as to whether Commerce’s decision was arbitrary and capricious and not supported by substantial evidence."