Cabinet Exporter Challenges Commerce’s Failure to Adjust US Price by Chinese Subsidy

The Commerce Department shouldn't have rejected a ministerial error comment submitted by The Ancientree Cabinet Co. that pointed out an incorrect dumping margin calculated by the agency, Ancientree said Jan. 5. The company called Commerce’s rejection “arbitrary and an abuse of discretion” (The Ancientree Cabinet Co. v. United States, CIT # 23-00262).

Commerce initially established a 8.26% margin for Ancientree in the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on wood cabinets and vanities from China. The exporter said the rate was incorrectly calculated because Commerce failed to account for a subsidy from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, and the agency must increase the U.S. sales price of merchandise “by the amount of any export subsidy found countervailable in the companion countervailing Order."

Ancientree told CIT it filed a "ministerial error comment," but Commerce rejected it after saying the issue should have been raised in the respondent's case brief "because the error was present in the Preliminary Results as well." Ancientree told the court that Commerce is obligated “to calculate dumping margins as accurately as possible" and is "ordered to adjust for export subsidies."

Commerce "has knowingly assigned Ancientree an inaccurate margin," Ancientree said, making the final CVD rate run "contrary to law."