Linguistic Battle Continues Over Meaning of AD/CVD Orders on Chinese-Origin Wheels

A Thai truck wheel exporter, which brought a case against the Commerce Department last year regarding the scope of antidumping and countervailing duty orders on Chinese truck wheels, said June 18 that petitioners were just trying to challenge the Commerce Department’s “misinterpretation of the plain language of the scope” (Asia Wheel Co. v. U.S., CIT Consol. # 23-00143).

Exporter Asia Wheel again claimed that the relevant orders only apply to products whose component “rims and discs” are from China (see 2402140027). So if a wheel is made with only one Chinese-origin component out of the two, it isn’t covered, it said.

In their last briefs, petitioners and the U.S. argued that the term “and,” as used in the orders, could be used to mean “rims or discs” (see 2405150059), the exporter said.

But “even if ‘and’ could somehow be interpreted to mean ‘or,’ this is irrelevant because Commerce did not take this position,” it said. Instead, it noted, the department explicitly told parties during the investigation that the orders were intended to only cover wheels with both Chinese-origin rims and Chinese-origin discs.

Asia Wheel also argued again that the Chinese-origin discs used in the wheels it exports are substantially transformed when they are processed into wheels in Thailand.

“While the AD/CVD Orders include Chinese-origin discs that are further processed in a third country and then shipped to the United States as further-processed discs, the plain language of the scope does not include Chinese-origin discs that are welded to nonsubject rims and painted to form a finished truck wheel in a third country,” it said.