Qatari Melamine Exporter Brings Claim Against Commerce Investigation to CIT
Melamine exporters led by Qatar Melamine Company brought suit against the Commerce Department March 28 contesting the department’s assignment of adverse facts available to its government-supplied water and electricity purchases (Qatar Melamine Company v. United States, CIT # 25-00053).
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It said Commerce should have put affiliate Qatar Fertiliser Company’s electricity and water reconciliation on the administrative record during a countervailing duty investigation. The department’s verification officials considered it in the presence of Qatar Fertilizer’s senior accountant and “over an approximately two-hour period -- without identifying any significant discrepancies,” Qatar Melamine said.
The affiliate hadn’t initially submitted everything to the department because it assumed Commerce wanted “only purchases of utilities consumed for production purposes,” the exporter said. But it included the relevant “previously unreported purchases” in the information it presented Commerce officials during verification, it noted.
The day after examining it, Commerce’s verifiers told Qatar Fertiliser “that Commerce management in Washington, DC, instructed them not to accept” the reconciliation information. The department then refused subsequent attempts by the exporter to provide it and assigned Qatar Fertiliser an 8% AFA rate for water and electricity purchases.
The complaint also charged that Commerce miscalculated the extent of the benefits received by QatarEnergy, another affiliate, from Qatar’s uncompensated grant of land rights to the affiliate. The rights covered the “industrial cities” Mesaieed, Ras Laffan and Dukhan. It said the department should have included the “expenses associated with the development, maintenance, and management of the industrial cities.”