CIT Grants Commerce's Bid to Add Mandatory Respondent to AD Review
The Court of International Trade in an Aug. 11 order granted the Commerce Department's voluntary remand request in a suit on the 2020-21 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on hot-rolled steel flat products from Japan. Commerce asked for the remand so it could make exporter Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. a mandatory respondent in the review to bring the proceeding into compliance with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's opinion in YC Rubber Co. v. U.S. (Optima Steel International v. U.S., CIT # 23-00108).
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In YC Rubber, the appellate court said that when the agency limits its investigation to fewer than all the exporters in a review, the "reasonable number" of respondents it must pick must generally be more than one (see 2208290026). Since only one respondent was in the review, Commerce asked for the remand to amend this.
Judge Stephen Vaden said the situation justifies a remand. Treating Tokyo Steel as a mandatory respondent will make the case comply with YC Rubber and provide relief "on as many as three of Plaintiff's four claims," Vaden said.