Trade Court Upholds 763% AFA Rate on Thai Mattress Exporter

The Court of International Trade on Dec. 22 sustained the Commerce Department's remand results in an antidumping duty case in which the agency was told to verify a Thai mattress importer's data "insofar as the Department relied upon that data." Judge M. Miller Baker noted because the importer, Saffron Living Co., withdrew from the case and no remaining party opposes the remand results, the court will uphold the results and the associated 763.28% antidumping duty rate for Saffron.

In the AD investigation on mattresses from Thailand, Commerce relied on unverified data from Saffron, a respondent in the proceeding. The trade court rejected the use of the data, telling the agency to attempt to verify the information. However, Saffron pulled out of investigation on remand, prompting Commerce to employ complete adverse facts available, which led to a final margin calculation, which was up considerably from the original 37.48% rate (see 2309200030).

Given that no parties contest this rate, Baker upheld the total AFA rate against Saffron, and the 572.66% all-others rate.

(Brooklyn Bedding v. U.S., Slip Op. 23-189, CIT # 21-00285, dated 12/22/23; Judge: M. Miller Baker)