Commerce Can't Make Affiliation Finding on All Companies Based on Mandatory Respondents, Importer Argues
Plaintiff-intervenor Florida Power and Light supported Vietnamese solar cell exporter Trina Solar before the Court of International Trade on Jan. 16 (see 2407150058). The two parties are arguing that the Commerce Department wrongly reached a circumvention finding regarding all of Vietnam’s solar cell exporters using only the records of a mandatory respondent (Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00228).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“The [crystalline silicon photovoltaic] CSPV cells and modules assembled or completed in Vietnam by non-examined cooperative companies is outside the literal scope of the orders,” it said.
It said the fact that Commerce determined some Vietnamese companies were affiliated with Chinese manufacturers “does not demonstrate that the process of assembly or completion of the merchandise is minor” for all Vietnamese countries.
Although it wasn’t pushing back against Commerce’s general ability to draw inferences from the records of mandatory respondents, it called this particular one “unreasonable.” The conclusion the department drew was the result of “Commerce’s desire to deter non-cooperation,” not the record evidence regarding the process of manufacturing solar cells in Vietnam, it argued.
In essence, “Commerce impermissibly applied an adverse inference against the cooperative non-examined companies,” it said.