Six Parties Challenge Circumvention Determination for Hardwood Plywood From Vietnam
Five importers and one Vietnamese exporter brought a total of 12 complaints to the Court of International Trade on July 18 challenging the Commerce Department’s use of adverse facts available in circumvention inquiries regarding antidumping duty and countervailing duty orders on hardwood plywood products from China (Rugby Holdings LLC v. United States, CIT #s 25-00119, -00122) (Hardwoods Specialty Products US v. United States, CIT #s 25-00117, -00121) (USply LLC v. United States, CIT #s 25-00111, -00112) (Vincent Wood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT #s 25-00113, -00114) (Richmond International Forest Products LLC v. United States, CIT #s 25-00120, -00116) (Northwest Hardwoods, Inc. v. United States, CIT #s 25-00115, -00118).
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 importers and exporter said in their complaints that Commerce created a certification process that would let exporters demonstrate their products were of Vietnamese, not Chinese, origin. This process required that exporters and importers have these certifications on hand, but didn’t instruct them to submit the certifications alongside the entries unless asked.
Importers Rugby Holdings and Hardwoods Specialty Products US said they purchased their products from exporter Greatwood Hung Yen, which was allowed to participate in the certification process. But when Greatwood Hung Yen’s products were entered into the U.S., Commerce instructed that only entries accompanied by a certification could be liquidated without AD/CVD, they said.
“Commerce’s certification regime, however, requires only that exporters and importers maintain such certifications, not that they submit them,” both importers said.
Meanwhile importer USply and exporter Vincent Wood Joint Stock Co. said in their own complaints that Vincent Wood was wrongly "blacklisted" from participating in this certification process. Importers Richmond International Forest Products and Northwest Hardwoods made the same claim with regard to exporter Win Faith Trading Limited, with Northwest Hardwoods’ complaints also referencing exporter Groll Ply and Cabinetry.