Commerce Disavowed Usual Practice by Using Turkish Lira to Value Home Market Sales, Exporter Says

The Commerce Department’s use of Turkish lira, not U.S. dollars, to calculate home market sales was contrary to record evidence that a Turkish exporter used the latter currency in its price negotiations, invoices and records, the exporter said on appeal (Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi A.S. v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1158).

Turkish exporter Habas Sinai ve Tibbi Gazlar Istihsal Endustrisi filed its opening brief in its appeal of a Court of International Trade decision Jan. 16, asking the Federal Circuit to overturn the September CIT ruling that sustained Commerce's use of Turkish lira in a 2018-19 administrative review of the antidumping duty on hot-rolled steel from Turkey. The review resulted in a 24.32% AD rate for Habas.

The lira was experiencing hyperinflation during the period of review and couldn't accurately represent Habas’ sales, the exporter argued in its appeal. Turkish producers regularly sell domestically in U.S. dollars to avoid large exchange rate fluctuations, it said.

“The factual record supports that home market sales were made and confirmed with a USD value; invoices were issued in Turkish Lira in accordance with Turkish law, with the U.S. Dollar exchange rate specified; and customers made their payments in U.S. Dollars,” Habas said.

CIT erred by sustaining Commerce’s use of Turkish lira, which distorted Habas’ products’ normal value, the exporter said. In doing so, it said, Commerce failed to address evidence that supported using U.S. dollars in its administrative review and deviated from its own usual practice.

For example, Commerce accepted use of U.S. dollars in reporting by a Turkish exporter of hot-rolled steel, it said. CIT sustained this decision as reasonable because the U.S. dollar was the currency in which the hot-rolled steel exporter kept its books, just as Habas does, Habas said.

“In that review, Commerce reviewed commercial activities virtually identical to Habas’s commercial activities and came to a different decision than in the instant review,” it said.

The result of Commerce’s inaccurate calculation was an “absurd” 24.32% AD rate, Habas said, a distortion that didn't reflect the reality of the exporter’s dumping margins.

CIT ruled in September in favor of the United States [see 2309140049). Commerce’s usual policy was to calculate home market sales using the currency that “controls” the products’ ultimate prices, it said. It said Habas hadn't provided enough evidence that its goods’ controlling currency was U.S. dollars, even if that was the tender in which prices were negotiated and invoiced.

Distortion, meanwhile, would only have occurred if Habas’ sales prices had been converted into lira and then back to U.S. dollars at the date of U.S. sale, CIT said. That was not the case here, it said.