Sunset Review Doesn't Moot CCR, Turkish Steel Exporter Argues

A sunset review of an antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Turkey doesn't render a request for a changed circumstances review meaningless, Turkish exporter Ereğli Demir ve Çelik Fabrikalari (Erdemir) said in a July 28 brief opposing motions to dismiss at the Court of International Trade (Ereğli Demir ve Çelik Fabrikalari v. U.S. International Trade Commission, CIT # 22-00350).

The ITC's argument that the sunset review moots Erdemir's CCR request would make the entire statutory provision for CCRs moot by allowing the commission to intentionally delay publishing CCR requests "until such a time as it could deny the CCR because of a pending or completed full sunset review," Erdemir said. It also said the statute specifically anticipated the "precise circumstances" Erdemir raised in this suit. Congress allowed the ITC to look at an original injury determination in a CCR when the original investigation's antidumping rate was recalculated on appeal in the Statement of Administrative Action accompanying the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, the exporter said.

The government’s claim that the sunset review voids Erdemir’s CCR request was largely based on the Supreme Court's ruling in Eveready Battery v. U.S. but ignored the case-specific limitations and the substantive and procedural differences between Erdemir’s CCR request and those in Eveready Battery, Erdemir said.

"The Commission itself conceded in the sunset review that it would not address in the sunset review some of the issues raised in Erdemir’s CCR request, undermining the Commission’s claim that the sunset review provided all the relief Erdemir could seek," Erdemir said.