Wood Flooring Exporters Back Commerce's Remand Results in Suit on CVD Review
Exporters Fine Furniture (Shanghai) and Double F Limited supported the Commerce Department's remand results in their case against the 2018 countervailing duty administrative review on multilayered wood flooring from China (Evolutions Flooring v. United States, CIT Consol. #21-00591).
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The companies backed Commerce's finding that exporter Jiangsu Senmao Bamboo Wood Industry didn't benefit from China's Export Buyer's Credit Program (EBCP), the agency's correction for the calculation of the benefit under the veneers for less than adequate remuneration program for exporter Riverside Plywood, and Commerce's revision to the subsidy rate for the non-selected companies.
Commerce released its remand results last month after requesting a voluntary remand to reconsider the use of adverse facts available regarding Senmao's supposed use of the EBCP (see 2507140055). On remand, the agency said Senmao submitted non-use certificates for all of its customers regarding the EBCP, whereas Riverside only provided certificates for "a subset" of its customers. Commerce dropped the CVD rate for the program for Senmao, bringing the company's CVD rate to 5.29%.
Fine Furniture and Double F said "Commerce’s redetermination is proper in finding non-use where a respondent has provided certificates from all of its customers confirming non-use of the EBCP."
Regarding the provision of subsidized veneers, Commerce "corrected an inadvertent error." The agency made corrections to the average unit value calculation of backboard veneer purchases from Riverside's cross-owned affiliate Baroque Timber Industries (Zhongshan). The agency went from "using the invoice value and the warehouse-in slip quantity to using the invoice quantity and value."
Commerce said it's possible to calculate the average unit values of Baroque's reported backboard purchases using the invoice quantity and value and relying on the "corresponding warehouse-in slips for these purchases only to determine the wood species (which determines the density conversion factor used)." The result was a revised CVD rate of 1.38% for the provision of veneers for LTAR program for Riverside. Fine Furniture and Double F said the result was "proper and supported by substantial evidence on the record."
Due to the changes to the rate for Senmao and Riverside, Commerce also revised the non-individually examined respondents' rate to 7.91%. Fine Furniture and Double F agreed with the change, arguing that it was supported by substantial evidence.