AD Petitioner Says CONNUMs Used by Commerce Distortive
Alternative characteristics used by the Commerce Department that were supplied by antidumping duty respondent LG Chem to set control numbers (CONNUMs) in an AD investigation had no relationship to actual prices and costs, and are distortive and create the potential for manipulation, AD petitioner The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers said in a Feb. 17 complaint at the Court of International Trade (The Ad Hoc Coalition of American SAP Producers v. U.S., CIT # 23-00010).
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The case concerns the antidumping duty investigation on superabsorbent polymers (SAP) from South Korea in which LG Chem served as a mandatory respondent. In the investigation, Commerce sought comments from all parties on the "appropriate physical characteristics" of SAP that should be used to set the control numbers for reporting and product-comparison purposes. The agency came up with its model match hierarchy, which used a single physical characteristic called Centrifuge Retention Capacity, the coalition said.
In reply, LG Chem reported this characteristic, but it also gave alternative sales and cost files in which CONNUMs were set by other physical characteristics -- namely, modified capacity (CRC1) and new permeability and absorbency under pressure characteristics. The coalition said that these characteristics were "unsolicited" and that Commerce did not verify the data. Preliminarily, Commerce set a 28.74% dumping margin for LG Chem based on the standard sales and cost files. But the agency reversed itself in the final determination, using the alternative sales and cost files, leading to a 17.64% margin.
Now at the trade court, the petitioner said that there is no "material correlation between" the alternative sales and cost files and price or costs. The coalition took issue with Commerce replacing its model match in the final determination as contravening its established practice. "[T[he CRC1, PERM, and AUP characteristics as defined by LG Chem were distortive and unusable, because the same SAP product could be classified into multiple categories at LG Chem’s discretion based on its chosen testing protocol, creating a significant potential for manipulation," the brief said. "Commerce simply ignored this problem without addressing or attempting to ameliorate it, and in this respect also the Contested Determination was unsupported by substantial evidence and not in accordance with law."