Dutch Mushroom Exporter Says Record Evidence Supports Germany as Comparison Market
Dutch mushroom exporter Prochamp said March 14 that Germany had been the right third-country comparison market in an antidumping duty investigation of its products, echoing the argument raised by the U.S. (see 2503030073) (Giorgio Foods v. United States, CIT # 23-00133).
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Court of International Trade Judge M. Miller Baker remanded the investigation’s results in July because the Commerce Department hadn’t been able to identify how much of the German price data actually represented domestic sales (see 2407260023). In its new results, Commerce said new record information let it properly make that estimate (see 2411180045). It adopted a “conservative presumption” that 10% of the exporter’s sales in Germany ultimately ended up in Austria, Prochamp said.
The exporter supported Commerce’s analysis and argued it was bolstered by emails between Prochamp and two of its customers. Overall, “substantial evidence” indicated that more of Prochamp’s merchandise was sold for consumption in Germany, not other countries such as France or Israel, it said.
Petitioner Giorgio Foods was wrongly focusing “on the lack of quantification in these email correspondences and their timing,” Prochamp said, even though CIT hadn’t actually required Commerce to quantify the exporter’s German sales on remand.
“A reasonable mind would certainly view the new factual evidence on the record as adequate to support Commerce’s selection of Germany as the third-country comparison market,” it said.