Commerce Uses Exporter's Silence on Partial AFA to Push for CIT Approval in AD Case

The U.S. urged the Court of International Trade to sustain the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty case accepting minutes-late submissions, given that no party filed comments opposing the remand. Submitting its May 5 comments at CIT, DOJ said Commerce fully followed court instructions in accepting the late submissions and reverting to partial adverse facts available rather than full AFA (Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi v. U.S., CIT #21-00045).

In the case, CIT ruled as an abuse of discretion Commerce's decision to deny Turkish exporter Celik Halat ve Tel Sanayi's sections B and C questionnaire responses as being untimely filed because they were 21 minutes late (see 2202160021). On remand, Commerce accepted the submissions, resulting in an AD rate drop from 53.65% to 17.88% for Celik. However, the agency still applied partial AFA. In comments on the draft remand results, Celik argued that violates the court's order to apply AFA. However, Celik has yet to file official comments on the final remand at CIT.

The U.S. used this to say that no party has filed comments opposing the remand. "Indeed, the only parties to comment, defendant-intervenors Insteel Wire Products Company, Sumiden Wire Product Corporation, and Wire Mesh Corp., commented in support of Commerce’s remand redetermination and have requested that the Court sustain Commerce’s remand redetermination 'in its entirety,'" the brief said. "For these reasons, we respectfully request that the Court sustain Commerce’s remand results and enter final judgment in favor of the United States."