Portuguese Exporter Says Commerce Erred in Treating Certain Fees as Direct Expenses

The Commerce Department erred in treating fees exporter Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens paid to a U.S. company as a direct expense in the antidumping duty investigation on paper shopping bags from Portugal, Finieco said in a Sept. 17 complaint at the Court of International Trade (Finieco Industria e Comercio de Embalagens v. U.S., CIT # 24-00160).

Finieco was the sole respondent in the investigation and reported to Commerce "U.S. administrative expenses." The company said that for many of its U.S. sales, it paid an "unaffiliated U.S. company a fee to perform various administrative tasks, e.g., scheduling phone calls." The company reported the expenses as "U.S. Commissions" but told the agency they should be treated as "indirect selling expenses because they were not related to selling merchandise and were not tied directly to specific sales."

Commerce rejected Finieco's request and treated the fees as direct expenses. The exporter said the agency made this decision despite finding that the "fees were administrative" and didn't tie directly to specific sales invoices. The agency also saw that while the fees were initially based on a percentage of the sales value made to certain customers, the exporter adjusted the final amount "for various reasons."