Plywood Importer Objects to Use of AFA on Vietnamese Producers in Anti-Circ Inquiry

The Commerce Department illegally assigned adverse facts available to Vietnamese hardwood plywood producers for alleged "deficiencies, inconsistencies and/or contradictions in their responses," as part of an antidumping and countervailing duty anti-circumvention proceeding, importer USPLY said in a Sept. 13 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Commerce failed to tell the Vietnamese producers of these supposed consistencies or give them an opportunity to rebut them, the importer argued (USPLY v. United States, CIT # 23-0156).

USPLY added that Commerce arbitrarily and capriciously expanded the definition of inquiry merchandise at the time of the preliminary determination in the proceeding by stating that the goods subject to the anti-circumvention and scope inquiries don't include core veneers fully made in Vietnam or a third-country assembled into a veneer core platform in Vietnam and combined with a face and back veneer made in China.

The agency also failed to "consider and properly attribute record evidence demonstrating factors, including significant investment, extensive research and development, significant manufacturing facilities, significant and sophisticated processing and manufacturing, and the value added in Vietnam," the complaint said.

Commerce started simultaneous scope and anti-circumvention inquiries in 2020 on whether hardwood plywood completed in Vietnam was circumventing the AD/CVD orders on the plywood from China. At the time, the agency defined the subject merchandise as plywood completed in Vietnam using plywood made in China or Chinese components made in Vietnam or third countries and later exported to the U.S. The agency confirmed the definition, finding that the goods don't include core veneers fully made in Vietnam or a third-country assembled into a veneer core platform in Vietnam and combined with a face and back veneer produced in China.

The agency issued its preliminary determination over two years later, finding that the hardwood plywood products and veneered panels shipped from Vietnam, which were assembled in Vietnam, are subject to the orders on hardwood plywood from China.