CVD Respondent Challenges Use of AFA for China's EBCP
The Commerce Department erred in using adverse facts available related to exporter The Ancientree Cabinet Co.'s alleged receipt of benefits from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program, Ancientree argued in a Jan. 13 complaint at the Court of International Trade. Ancientree said it demonstrated that neither it nor its U.S. customers used the EBCP (The Ancientree Cabinet Co. v. United States, CIT # 24-00223).
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The exporter cited a host of prior CIT cases in which the use of AFA on the EBCP had been rejected given that "all parties involved," including the Chinese government, the countervailing duty respondents and the U.S. customers, attested to non-use of the program.
In a second count of the complaint, Ancientree argued that the use of AFA for the EBCP was not in accordance with law where the company's U.S. customers submitted supplemental questionnaire responses verifying their non-use of the program. The majority of the exporter's U.S. customers by value gave responses to the questionnaire in the 2022 review of the CVD order on wooden cabinets and vanities, the exporter said.
Ancientree said there's "no missing information to establish non-use of the EBC [program] for these customers."