Nail Exporter Challenges Company's Data Used in CV Calculation

Exporter Your Standing International argued on Aug. 26 at the Court of International Trade that the Commerce Department erred in using the financial statements of Taiwanese company San Shing Fastech Corporation in calculating Your Standing's constructed value profit in the 2021-22 review of the antidumping duty order on steel nails from Taiwan (Your Standing International v. United States, CIT # 24-00055).

Your Standing argued that San Shing's sales didn't reflect sales in the home market of Taiwan and that San Shing and Your Standing don't have similar customer bases. Both of these factors indicate that the agency can't use San Shing's financial information to calculate CV profit, the brief said.

Only 10.22% of San Shing's sales are actually sold in the Taiwanese market, with the rest going for export to various other markets including the U.S. "The statute requires Commerce to reject financial statements in which the surrogate company predominantly or exclusively sold merchandise to the United States," Your Standing noted. By ignoring the fact that San Shing largely didn't sell its goods in Taiwan, Commerce failed to meet its statutory mandate, the brief said.

San Shing's statements "simply do not provide a reasonable estimate of the profit and selling expenses of a company primarily engaged in the sale of the subject merchandise in Taiwan," Your Standing argued. It's "simply implausible to claim" that a company who only sells 10.22% of its sales to Taiwan represents what Your Standing's profit and selling expenses would be in Taiwan, the brief said.

Commerce's only justification for this pick seems to be based on the finding that no financial statements on the record provide evidence of predominant sales to Taiwan, Your Standing said. This justification doesn't support Commerce's "failure to engage in any meaningful analysis of San Shing’s lack of sales to the Taiwan market," the brief said.

Your Standing added that it doesn't have a similar customer base as San Shing, since it only sells "through the distributor channel in the United States," while San Shing sells to end-users like carmakers in Europe and the U.S. "A reasonable mind could not conclude that Commerce chose the best available information when it claims that a company without significant sales of comparable merchandise to Taiwan approximates the home market profit experience of Your Standing," the brief said.