Gov't of Ontario Won't Participate in Canadian Wind Tower CVD Appeal at CAFC

The Government of Ontario won't participate in an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit over the countervailing duty investigation on wind towers from Canada. Ontario gave notice of its non-participation on July 27 in the case. In March, the Court of International Trade sustained all five of the Commerce Departments positions under contention in the investigation. The consolidated case includes challenges to the investigation from Marmen Energie, which was the mandatory respondent; the governments of Canada, Quebec and Ontario; and the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, though now the Government of Ontario has dropped out of the appeal. Though it is out of the appeal, the court refused to drop the government from the case's official caption (The Government of Quebec, et al. v. United States, Fed. Cir. #22-1807).

At CIT, the court said that Commerce permissibly excluded a foreign currency adjustment from plaintiff Marmen Energie's auditor from the total sales denominator as unreliable, reasonably found the Quebec Local Content Requirement provided a recurring benefit, and acted within its authority to find that the Quebec On-the-Job Training Tax Credit was a de facto subsidy (see 2203230064). Commerce also legally excluded some increased tax liabilities in computing the benefit conferred by a Canadian tax credit and acted lawfully when finding the financial benefit from additional depreciation for buildings used in manufacturing.