Thai Exporter Asks Trade Court to Remand Commerce's Allocation Decision in Propane Cylinder Review

The Commerce Department erred in using a period of review-wide allocation for the certification expenses of Thai exporter Sahamitr Pressure Container (SMPC), SMPC said in an Aug. 16 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade (Sahamitr Pressure Container v. United States, CIT #22-00107).

During the first administrative review of the antidumping duty order on steel propane cylinders from Thailand, SMPC said, it reported certification fees as “other direct selling expenses” incurred on sales of the subject merchandise and was unable to report the expenses on a transaction-specific basis using their internal data. In accordance "with the Department’s specific request," SMPC said, it reported the expenses by market and by month, which was "as specific as was feasible." Even after it conformed to Commerce's request, SMPC said, Commerce disregarded the expenses and used general, POR-average expenses in its final results.

SMPC filed a complaint on April 6 to contest the results, arguing that Commerce's methodology "departed from [its] requirement and practice of using the most detailed transaction-specific expense data available" (see 2204070030.

SMPC argued that the reporting standard requires companies to demonstrate that "the allocation is calculated on as specific a basis as is feasible,” which SMPC said it did. It argued that by ignoring that data, Commerce "disregarded substantial record evidence and failed to comply with its regulations and practice." The company asked the court to order that Commerce's failure to use SMPC's reported expenses in the final results is unsupported by evidence and to remand the issue to Commerce for a revised result.