Indian Exporter Drops Appeal of AFA Rate Related to Affiliation Analysis

Indian exporter Kumar Industries withdrew its appeal of an antidumping duty case at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Feb. 23. The company said that it "has elected not to further pursue its appeal," noting that the U.S. consented to the withdrawal (Kumar Industries v. United States, Fed. Cir. # 24-1293).

Kumar had appealed a November Court of International Trade decision sustaining the Commerce Department's assignment of a 13.61% adverse facts available dumping rate to the exporter based on its "inadequate explanations" regarding one of its partners' ownership interests in two unnamed companies (see 2311270005). The trade court sustained the rate, which came as part of the first review of the AD order on glycine from India, finding that Kumar prevented Commerce from conducting a proper affiliate analysis.

During the review period, a substantial part of Kumar's home market sales was to an unnamed company, Company A, while the exporter bought a substantial amount of its inputs from another unnamed company, Company B. Commerce attempted to review whether the exporter was affiliated with the two companies. While Kumar said its partners sold their shares of the unnamed firms before the review period, the court said the record lacked the information needed to reconcile evidence of the termination of the ownership interests in the unnamed firms with conflicting information on the record.