Commerce Deselects Tire Exporter as Mandatory Respondent in AD Review
The Commerce Department on remand at the Court of International Trade deselected exporter Shandong Linglong Tyre as a mandatory respondent in the 2016-17 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on passenger vehicle and light truck tires from China. The agency then granted Linglong separate rate status in the review, assigning the company a 41.36% AD rate (YC Rubber Co. (North America) v. United States, CIT Consol. # 19-00069).
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In May, the trade court remanded the review on the grounds that the agency unreasonably used the evidence it only had before it during a previous remand in considering whether to select Linglong as a mandatory respondent (see 2505300036). The court said Commerce unlawfully viewed there to only be "a singular respondent-selection event." While that may typically be true, respondent selection happened at various times in the present case, which has been remanded a total of three times, the court said.
In the review, Commerce initially only picked one respondent, though the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit remanded this decision, finding that the agency must use more than one respondent where multiple companies request a review (see 2208290026). CIT remanded the case after the second respondent Commerce had chosen withdrew from participation. The trade court faulted the agency for its selection methodology, questioning why Linglong was picked before Kenda Rubber (China) in light of the fact that Kenda seemingly had more import entries than Linglong.
In its third remand results, Commerce said based on the record before it during the second remand, Kenda had more imports that Linglong did during the review period. As a result, Linglong shouldn't have been picked as a mandatory respondent before Kenda, the agency said, noting that it's no longer treating the company as a mandatory respondent.
In addition, the agency noted that since Linglong no longer is a mandatory respondent, its failure to repsond to questionnaires "is moot." Commerce then calculated a separate rate for Linglong by averging the rates for Kenda and exporter Zhaoqing Junhong Co., arriving at the 41.36% rate.