ITC Failed to Comply With CIT Remand Order, Reopen Record, Russian Pipe Exporter Says

A Russian pipe exporter contested the International Trade Commission's redetermination upon remand that Russian pipe imports into the U.S. were injuring domestic industry (see 2402120048). It said the ITC didn’t make any changes to its analysis in the redetermination, contrary to an order by the Court of International Trade (PAO TMK v. U.S., CIT # 21-00532).

Exporter PAO TMK argued that the ITC had failed to reopen the record for its redetermination even though its original determination was remanded because the trade court found key evidence had been ignored (see 2310120043).

The commission found initially that U.S. pipe imports from Russia weren't negligible using inaccurate comparison data from two other countries, Germany and Mexico, TMK said. It said the ITC had concluded Germany and Mexico each only had one importer of the goods in question, but that customs import data indicated the existence of more in the applicable Harmonized Tariff Schedule categories.

Then, in the redetermination, “rather than reopening the record to resolve those conflicts, the ITC chose to leave those factual conflicts unresolved,” TMK said.

The ITC claimed it couldn't use the customs data because it only covered a portion of the period they were reviewing, but instead of asking the agency for the missing data, “the ITC simply left the record incomplete,” the exporter said. And, among other things, the ITC also could have sought bills of lading from one company -- redacted from the public version of the brief -- or taken heed of “the 232 requests” filed by an entity “related to the subject imports,” it said.

“This Court held that the ITC must address the CBP data demonstrating that there are other importers of seamless pipe from Mexico,” TMK said. “The ITC did not [meaningfully] address this issue.”