ITC Edited Import Data to Include Components Covered by Scope, US and Exporter Say

The International Trade Commission and an exporter of aluminum extruders Aug. 29 each opposed a petitioner’s motion for judgment that claimed the ITC had altered usually reliable data to reach a negligibility finding regarding extrusions from the Dominican Republic. The alteration was both established by law and necessary, they said (U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition v. United States, CIT # 23-00270).

The ITC had to alter the data in order to properly cover all in-scope products, the commission said. It said that aluminum extrusions are imported both under the primary Harmonized Tariff Schedule headings for the extrusions and under other headings, when entered as parts of other products. To cover the latter category, the Commission used questionnaire response data and “proprietary Census-edited Customs records,” it explained.

“Without using questionnaire data, a substantial portion of undisputedly in-scope imports would have been disregarded,” it said.

Even if the Commission had decided not to use any of the import data from the questionnaires, imports from the Dominican Republic would have been deemed negligible, it said.

It claimed it is not always possible to determine negligibility “with absolute precision” during the preliminary phase of an investigation, and Congress recognizes this. In particular, it said, the Statement of Administrative Action to the Uruguay Round Agreements is particularly applicable when, “as happened in this case, the import data are ‘broader’ and did not ‘conform ... exactly’ to the scope definition.”

Defendant-intervenor Kingtom Aluminio agreed. In this case, it said, the scope of the investigation was “anything but simple” and the negligibility calculation isn’t straightforward.

“This was confirmed by numerous U.S. importers who acted to the best of their ability to report only the aluminum extrusion portion of their imports but acknowledged that they could not do so with total accuracy,” it said.

As a result, the import data used by the ITC was actually overinclusive, including non-subject components, and the ITC “brought its expertise to bear in making certain adjustments” to the data to make it more accurate, the exporter said.

In the case of the Dominican Republic, the ITC said, monthly data on aluminum extrusion exports to the U.S. supported a determination that the exports didn’t have the potential to immediately exceed the negligibility threshold.