Commerce Erred in AD Calculations for Light-Walled Pipe and Tube From Mexico, Mexican Exporter Says

The Commerce Department committed several errors in its antidumping duty administrative review on light-walled rectangular pipe and tube from Mexico, which resulted in higher AD rates assigned to respondents Maquilacero and TEFLU, as well as the "all-others" rate assigned to plaintiff Perfiles, the company said in a May 23 complaint to the Court of International Trade (Perfiles LM v. U.S., CIT # 23-00094). The company asked the court to remand the review to Commerce.

Perfiles said that Commerce incorrectly included sales of downstream auto parts made by Maquilacero’s affiliated producer TEFLU in its calculations and failed to adjust its computer program to account for the differences in those products. According to Perfiles, Commerce also improperly collapsed Maquilacero with TEFLU based on the 2018-2019 review of the same order, in spite of conflicting evidence from the record of the more recent review. Additionally, Commerce classified virtual export sales by the two companies as home-market sales and its use of "differential pricing analysis" was contrary to Federal Circuit precedent, Perfiles said.

As a result of the alleged errors, the dumping margin assigned to Maquilacero and TEFLU was inflated, as was the "all-others" rate assigned to Perfiles. Although Perfiles was not selected as a mandatory respondent for the review, the company participated and submitted a case brief, it said.