U.S. trade court remands OTR tire duty case to Commerce

The U.S. Court of International Trade has remanded to the U.S. Department of Commerce an antidumping duty determination against five Chinese off-the-road tire importers and ordered the agency to recalculate the antidumping margins it issued against them in a 2016 administrative review.

On April 4, CIT Chief Judge Timothy C. Stanceu issued a decision stating that Commerce had erred in its review in its calculation of antidumping duties for the 2013-2014 period against Xuzhou Xugong Tyres Co. Ltd., Qingdao Qihang Tyre Co. Ltd., Qingdao Free Trade Zone Full-World International Trading Co. Ltd., Trelleborg Wheel Systems (Xingtai) Co. Ltd. and Weihai Zhongwei Rubber Co. Ltd.

In its 2016 review, Commerce assigned antidumping duties for 2013-2014 of 65.33 percent to Xugong, 79.86 percent for Qihang and 70.55 percent to the others.In their appeal to the CIT, Qihang and Xugong argued that Commerce erred in making deductions for unrefunded value-added tax when determining export prices and constructed export prices of their tires.

They also claimed that Commerce's calculation of a "surrogate" value for one their production materials, reclaimed rubber, was not supported by substantial evidence.

Stanceu ordered Commerce to submit a new determination to the court recalculating the export prices and constructed export prices for Xugong and Qihang without making deductions for Chinese value-added tax.He also ordered the agency to reconsider, and redetermine as necessary, the surrogate values for reclaimed rubber and foreign inland freight.

For all plaintiffs, Stanceu ordered Commerce to recalculate the dumping margins and submit the recalculations within 90 days.