Solar Cell Exporter Says Commerce Can't Just Look at Ownership in Denying Separate Rate Bid

Exporter Yingli Energy (China) Co. filed a complaint on Aug. 28 at the Court of International Trade to contest the Commerce Department's denial of its separate rate application in the 10th review of the antidumping duty order on solar cells from China, claiming that it showed its independence from Chinese state control (Yingli Energy (China) Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00131).

Yingli was tapped to serve as a mandatory respondent in the review and was ultimately found by Commerce to be controlled by the Chinese government since its majority shareholders are controlled by a "State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission" company. The agency rooted its finding that Yingli was state-owned on this fact alone, the complaint said.

Administratively, Yingli said, "this conclusion was speculative" and that Commerce failed to look at all of its factors for assessing de facto foreign government control. The agency held that government "majority equity ownership, either directly or indirectly," in an exporter "in and of itself, means that the government exercises control over the company's operations, generally."

At CIT, Yingli claimed that this conclusion isn't backed by substantial evidence, since Commerce failed to analyze all of the separate rate factors. "It is well established that speculation does not constitute substantial evidence," the brief said. The analysis only centered on the "mere possibility of control rather than actual control."