Chinese Hanger Duties Determined Incorrectly
An importer of steel wire hangers from China told the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Commerce erred when determining anti-dumping duties for the products because it improperly used a Thai surrogate for its calculations.
Aristocraft of America LLC filed a complaint contesting portions of the final results of an administrative review conducted by the Commerce Department, covering the import of wire garment hangers from the People’s Republic of China between October 2013 and September 2014. The company said that the calculation of duties for its supplier, Shanghai Wells Hanger Co. Ltd., were wrongly based on a surrogate that cannot be justified as proper.
“Commerce’s selection of which companies’ financial statements to use for determining the surrogate financial ratios for Shanghai Wells is unsupported by substantial evidence and/or is otherwise not in accordance with law,” the complaint said.
The Commerce Department calculated a dumping margin of 33.24 percent for Shanghai Wells in the results of its review that were published on Nov. 12. In addition to using an inappropriate stand-in to reach that number, Aristocraft said that the department also refused to adjust the surrogate’s financial results to account for an overstatement it pointed out.
“Having decided to rely in part on the financial statement of Thai Mongkol Fasteners Co. Ltd. for determining the surrogate financial ratios for Shanghai Wells, Commerce’s refusal to revise its calculations to take into account overstatement of the manufacturing overhead amount in Mongkol’s financial ratio calculations is unsupported by substantial evidence and/or is otherwise not in accordance with law,” the complaint said.
The complaint also raises issue with the brokerage and handling calculations based on Thai Mongkol Fasteners and Commerce’s reliance on average unit import values from Thailand for valuing corrugated paper. It is asking the court to remand the results of the of review back to the Commerce Department.
The CIT heard a similar case last year, brought by Jiaxing Brother Fastener Co. over anti-dumping duties for Chinese steel threaded rod. Jiaxing also questioned the Commerce Department’s decision to use a Thai company as a surrogate, initially winning a remand. The CIT eventually sided with the agency, finding that it provided adequate justification for selecting Thailand over the Philippines to serve as a surrogate when faced with two sets of “imperfect” data.
The linchpin of Jiaxing’s complaint was that its dispute was nearly identical to a different fight over wire garment hanger tariffs in which the CIT had selected the Philippines’ data over Thailand’s.
Jiaxing later appealed to the Federal Circuit.
The Commerce Department and attorneys for Aristocraft declined comment on Thursday.
Aristocraft is represented by Douglas J. Heffner and Richard P. Ferrin of D rinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
Counsel information for the Department of Commerce was not immediately available on Thursday.
The case is Aristocraft of America LLC v. U.S., case number 1:15-cv-00307, in the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Read More: Steel Wire Hanger Making Machine
