CIT Calls for Future Litigation on Scope of Commerce's Subassemblies Provision
The Court of International Trade in a pair of decisions on June 25 called for future litigation to clarify whether the Commerce Department's interpretation of the "subassemblies" provision in the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on aluminum extrusions from China comports with AD/CVD law.
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 subassemblies provision subjects "aluminum extrusion components that are attached (e.g., by welding or fasteners) to form subassemblies" to AD/CVD and potentially conflicts with the orders' "finished merchandise" exclusion, which excludes "finished merchandise containing aluminum extrusions as parts that are fully and permanently assembled and completed at the time of entry." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said these provisions are mutually exclusive.
However, CIT Judge Timothy Stanceu noted that Commerce's interpretation of the subassemblies provision leads to AD/CVD imposed on products that aren't sold or offered for sale into U.S. but are, rather, imposed on upstream parts of goods that are actually imported and sold -- an outcome potentially barred by AD/CVD statutes. Since this claim was not raised by importers Worldwide Door Components and Columbia Aluminum Products in a pair of scope cases, Stanceu left the argument for future cases.