US to Appeal CVD Case Involving Land Benchmark Formula, China's EBCP

The U.S. will appeal a Court of International Trade case on the 2017 review of the countervailing duty order on solar cells from China, it said in a Feb. 16 notice of appeal. The government lost at the trade court with regard to its land benchmark calculation and use of adverse facts available pertaining to China's Export Buyer's Credit Program (see 2312200026).

The result was a lowered CVD rate for exporter Risen Energy Co., to 4.2% from 9.69%. The case will now be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Risen Energy Co. v. United States, CIT Consol. # 20-03912).

The court previously sent back Commerce's land benchmark formula for violating the scope of an earlier remand, telling the agency to use the calculation from its first remand. In that proceeding, Commerce used a 2010 Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis (CBRE) land report to set the benchmark. Reverting to this calculation, Commerce said it intends to "re-evaulate its methodology for" calculating the benchmark "in future segments of its countervailing duty proceedings."