US Supports Commerce's Valuation of BT Coal, Coal Tar in AD Case at Trade Court

The U.S. backed the Commerce Department's valuation of exporter Jilin Bright Future Chemical's inputs of bituminous coal and coal tar as part of the 2020-21 review of the antidumping duty order on activated carbon from China. Filing its response to Jilin Bright's claims (see 2306080054) at the Court of International Trade, the government argued that the exporter failed to dispute Commerce's formula for converting useful heat value (UHV) to gross calorific value (GCV) as part of the BT coal valuation at the administrative level. As a result, Jilin Bright did not exhaust its administrative remedies, the brief said (Jilin Bright Future Chemicals Co. v. United States, CIT # 22-00336).

The U.S. claimed that Commerce reasonably used Malaysian import data under Harmonized Tariff Schedule subheading 2701.12 to value the BT coal. Chapter 27 of the tariff schedule establishes the criteria for BT coal under this subheading, "including a volatile matter and a calorific value limit, the brief said. While asserting that Jilin Bright waived the challenge, the government also supported the choice of formula for converting UHV to GCV, arguing that the exporter has not shown that the agency was required to use a different formula.

The government added that Jilin Bright's coal tar pitch was properly valued with Malaysian import data under heading 2706. Data under this heading is "product-specific, representative of a broad market average, publicly available, contemporaneous with the period of review, and tax- and duty-exclusive," in line with the agency's surrogate value preferences, the brief said.

The agency was not required to use data from the Global Coal Tar and Pitch report, as championed by Jilin Bright, since "that report does not explain its methodology for obtaining the prices it reports," barring Commerce from confirming the validity of the prices, the brief said. The U.S. also defended Commerce's exclusive use of Malaysia to value the inputs, declining to use Russian data as pushed by the exporter. Jilin Bright's challenges to all the SV data merely amount to "disagreements with Commerce's lawful exercise of its discretion to weigh the evidence, and, thus, are meritless," the brief said.