Commerce Adds Mandatory Respondent to AD Review on Japanese Steel on Remand at CIT

The Commerce Department on March 12 said that on remand it treated exporter Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. as a mandatory respondent in the 2020-21 review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan, assigning the company a 5.2% AD rate. The agency asked for the remand so it could grant the exporter mandatory respondent status following a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decision that said Commerce must use more than one mandatory respondent where multiple companies request review (see 2208290026) (Optima Steel International v. U.S., CIT # 23-00108).

The Court of International Trade granted the voluntary remand request, noting that adding Tokyo Steel as a mandatory respondent would satisfy the CAFC's ruling in YC Rubber Co. v. U.S. (see 2308110022). In the remand, Commerce conducted a full analysis of Tokyo Steel's U.S. and Japan sales to calculate the AD rate.

In comments submitted on the draft remand results, Tokyo Steel said Commerce's calculation has "three clerical errors," listing as incorrect the year for the start of the contemporaneous window period and the beginning and ending dates of the review period.

Commerce agreed and made the corrections in calculating the AD rate. No other comments were made.