Commerce Relied on Unverified Polymer Characteristics in AD Investigation, Petitioner Argues

The Commerce Department's use of alternative characteristics of superabsorbent polymers supplied by antidumping respondent LG Chem to set control numbers (CONNUMs) in an AD investigation should be remanded, The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers said in a July 14 motion for judgment at the Court of International Trade. The coalition said the department's use of unverified and unrequested alternative superabsorbent polymer characteristics contravened an established practice (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).

The record showed a lack of any correlation between the characteristics reported by LG Chem and either prices or costs, the coalition said, and the department’s finding that those characteristics were “commercially significant” was unsupported by substantial evidence. Even if LG's Chem's alternative characteristics were commercially significant, Commerce’s "wholesale replacement" of the model match contravened established practice and thus was not in accordance with law, the motion said. Commerce never verified the alternative sales and cost information, the use of which is "contrary to the statute," the coalition said.

During the investigation, Commerce sought comments on the "appropriate physical characteristics" of superabsorbent polymers that should be used to set the CONNUMs for reporting and product-comparison purposes. The agency came up with a model match hierarchy, which used a single physical characteristic called centrifuge retention capacity in its preliminary determination, that set a 28.74% dumping margin for LG Chem. However, Commerce ultimately went with LG Chem's alternative sales and cost files in which CONNUMs were set by other physical characteristics such as modified capacity and new permeability and absorbency under pressure characteristics, which led to a 17.64% margin. The coalition said the characteristics as defined by LG Chem were distortive and unusable because the same product could be classified into multiple categories at LG Chem’s discretion (see 2302210036).