AD Petitioner Tells CAFC to Disregard CIT Decision on Commerce's Filing Deadlines

Antidumping duty petitioner Mid Continent Steel & Wire urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to reject exporter Oman Fasteners' notice of supplemental authority regarding a Court of International Trade ruling on the Commerce Department's filing deadlines (Oman Fasteners v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 23-1661).

Mid Continent said unreported CIT decisions aren't precedential at the CAFC, meaning it's "not clear that" the decision satisfies the requirement that the authority be "pertinent and significant." The CIT decision, Cambria Co. v. U.S., also isn't final because it's unclear whether it will be appealed, the petitioner said.

In Cambria, the trade court said Commerce abused its discretion by using adverse facts available against Antique Group after the exporter missed a filing deadline by five hours (see 2405290065). While the agency allows late filings only when there's an "extraordinary circumstance," the court said Commerce must waive this rule for late submissions if not doing so would be an abuse of discretion.

Oman Fasteners cited the case in its notice of supplement authority, claiming that the respondent in the present AD proceeding "had consistently complied with prior deadlines" and that one missed deadline doesn't support the use of adverse facts available, as in Cambria (see 2406110042). In response, Mid Continent said Cambria "presents fundamentally different facts" involving an "atypical deadline and a five-hour delay," with the requested information received within business hours on its due date.

In this case, the "standard 5pm deadline applied" and Oman Fasteners "ignored its late filing for more than five weeks until Commerce rejected it," Mid Continent said.