AD Petitioner Proposes Remand Order at CIT Over Surrogate Country Pick
The Court of International Trade should order the Commerce Department to treat Indonesia as being at the same level of economic development as Vietnam for the purposes of an antidumping surrogate country analysis, plaintiffs, led by Catfish Farmers of America, said in a proposed remand order at the trade court March 2. The remand order would alternatively have Commerce "provide adequate explanation and support for declining to" treat Indonesia at the same level as Vietnam (Catfish Farmers of America v. U.S., CIT # 20-00105).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The remand order would have Commerce explain its decision to not treat Indonesia as being at the same level of economic development as Vietnam, even though Indonesia's gross national income during the review period was closer to Vietnam's than in multiple prior reviews where Indonesia was treated as economically comparable to Vietnam.
Commerce also would have to keep in mind "the necessity of fully explaining and supporting the 'range of factors' used in determining that Indonesia is not economically comparable with Vietnam; and the necessity of fully explaining and supporting any determination that only the countries with GNIs within the range shown on the list prepared by Commerce’s Office of Policy are economically comparable with Vietnam," the proposed remand said.
Catfish Farmers' remand order also would have Commerce reconsider its reliance on Indian data to value whole live fish, fingerlings, feed and labor and its treatment of NTSF Seafoods Joint Stock Co.'s ratio of whole live fish to fillets and byproduct reporting.
The case stems from the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on frozen fish fillets from Vietnam. In April, the trade court sent back elements of the review, including the primary surrogate country choice. Catfish Farmers argued India should have been disqualified as a surrogate because it's not a significant producer of comparable merchandise and even if it were, Commerce still should have used Indonesia, which has a comparable level of economic development to Vietnam and superior data compared with India's. The court sent the issue back to Commerce (see 2205030068), finding Commerce failed to address whether Indonesia is at a comparable level of economic development.
After the first remand, the agency stuck by its position, explaining it looks to pick a country at the same level, and not a comparable level, of economic development as the nonmarket economy, among other things (see 2208240036).