Exporters Push Back Against Third Remand Results of Chinese Steel Kegs Review

After a remand order forced the Commerce Department to use Brazilian rather than Mexican labor cost data in calculating two Chinese exporters’ value, those exporters pushed back on the decision and the subsequent increase they saw in their own antidumping duties (New American Keg v. U.S., CIT # 20-00008).

The thrice-remanded case, brought by petitioner New American Keg in 2020, challenged the department’s decision to use Mexican data -- adjusted to Brazilian inflation -- even though there appeared no reason the Brazilian data should be considered inaccurate, as Court of International Trade Judge M. Miller Baker pointed out in his second remand order (see 2403260080),

With the switch to the Brazilian data, exporters and defendant-intervenors Ningo Master’s and Guangzhou Jingye Machinery Co.’s ADs rose from de minimis to 4.23%.

But the Mexican data was actually the better source, the exporters said in their remand comments. Mexico was the only surrogate country who produced steel kegs identical to those it exported, they pointed out.

Further, Commerce’s usual practice is to use only one surrogate in its review of an exporter, they said. This, they said, is to prevent “margin-shopping”: exporters pushing different surrogates for different aspects of a review to try to get the lowest possible AD rate. It also limits distortion, the exporters added.

“Mexico is a producer of identical merchandise, as evidenced by the fact that the petition itself was against China and Mexico,” they said.

They said the only Brazilian labor data American Keg provided the review regarded steel wheels, which require a less technological, less intensive manufacturing process.

The exporters also pushed back against American Keg’s claim, which Commerce subsequently supported, that Commerce was not allowed to reopen the record on remand unless “strictly necessary.” The decision to reopen a record is generally left up to agency discretion, they said.