Exporter Says Frozen Shrimp Surrogate Land Price Data Not Specific to Industrial Land
In response to U.S. opposition (see 2507180057) to its motion for judgment (see 2501270012), exporter Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. said again that the Commerce Department’s use of Thailand as a surrogate for its countervailing duty review’s land rental prices calculation wasn’t relying on the best available evidence (Soc Trang Seafood Joint Stock Co. v. United States, CIT # 25-00030).
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“It is better to have precise data, i.e., a benchmark value only for raw land, than imprecise, over-valued, non-comparable data for something [Soc Trang] does not rent, i.e., logistical structures,” it said.
Two reports placed on the record by the review’s petitioners, Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee and American Shrimp Processors Association, both clearly indicate that they provide Thai prices for both industrial and logistical land -- not just industrial land, the exporter said.
It said that “no reasonable mind” would equate “land containing one or more ‘ready-built warehouses’” with industrial land, describing the two as apples and oranges.
The exporter admitted its preferred data from the Philippines was undated. But it said that neither the petitioners, who initially placed it on the record, nor Commerce had disavowed it and that Commerce could deflate it to more accurately portray prices during the review period.