9 Companies Challenge Inclusion of Inputs in Aluminum Extrusions AD/CVD Investigations
Nine different companies filed a total of 18 nearly identical complaints at the Court of International Trade on Jan. 13 contesting the Commerce Department's antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on aluminum extrusions from China. All the cases contest a part of Commerce's final scope decision in the proceedings, which found that the agency had the "legal authority to include within the scope of investigation, and did in fact include, 'inputs' to imported merchandise, as opposed to the actual imported merchandise itself" (Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing v. United States, CIT #s 24-00250, -252).
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The companies said that the scope of the investigations "purported to cover" aluminum extrusions contained in merchandise that are a "part or subassembly of a larger whole," whether the goods also contain a part other than aluminum extrusions. The complaints said that Commerce went beyond its authority to impose AD/CVD under the plain definitions of "merchandise" since aluminum extrusions that enter the U.S. as an input to subassemblies aren't merchandise while raw aluminum extrusions are merchandise.
The Tariff Act of 1930 doesn't allow AD/CVD on mere "inputs" to merchandise "any more than it would permit assessment of normal customs duties on mere 'inputs,'" the briefs said. "In both cases, the duties must be assessed on actual 'merchandise,' not 'inputs' to merchandise."
The nine companies challenging the investigations are Danfoss, Johnson Controls, Autozone Parts, Modine Manufacturing Co., Daikin Comfort Technologies Manufacturing, Streamlight, Dorman Products, Sign-Zone and Rockler Companies.