The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the Court of International Trade's decision to reject a Commerce Department methodology for calculating antidumping duty margins, in a May 14 opinion. In the ruling, the Federal Circuit found Commerce's attempt to allocate import duties exempted or rebated "based on the import duty absorbed into, or imbedded in, the overall cost of producing the merchandise under consideration," when constructing the export price in an AD review, was unsupported by the law. Commerce attempted this new methodology for calculating the U.S. price for Indian exporter Uttam Galva Steels Limited in an antidumping duty investigation into corrosion-resistent steel products (CORE) from India.
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on May 14 upheld the Court of International Trade's decision to reject the Commerce Department's duty drawback adjustment methodology for an Indian exporter in an antidumping duty investigation on corrosion-resistant steel products. Rather than follow its normal method of adjusting only the export price for drawback received by the exporter, Commerce in the investigation adjusted the exporter's overall costs of production, including for home market goods, resulting in a higher AD duty rate. Like CIT, the Federal Circuit held the broader allocation ran afoul of the relevant statute, which only requires an adjustment to export price.
Akin Gump added Cindy Owens, previously with Covington & Burling, as a counsel in its international trade practice, the firm said in a news release. Owens “represents multinational clients on customs matters, including classification, valuation, country of origin, drawback, transfer pricing, foreign trade zones, bonded warehouses, free trade agreements and general entry process requirements,” it said.