STANCEU, Judge:
Plaintiff Atar S.r.l. ("Atar"), an Italian pasta producer, brought this action to contest the final determination ("Final Results") of the International Trade Administration, United States Department of Commerce ("Commerce" or the "Department") concluding the ninth administrative review of an antidumping duty order on certain pasta from Italy (the "subject merchandise").
In its first decision in this case, the court sustained Atar's challenge in part, remanding the Final Results for reconsideration, and redetermination as necessary, of the indirect selling expense ("ISE") and profit components Commerce calculated when determining the constructed value ("CV") of Atar's subject merchandise. Atar, S.r.l. v. United States, 33 CIT ___, ___, 637 F.Supp.2d 1068, 1092-93 (2009) ("Atar I"). The court ordered a remand because the Department's decision to use only data from home-market sales made in the ordinary course of trade (specifically, above-cost sales) by the six respondents in the previous (eighth) review in performing the profit and ISE calculations was not grounded in findings of fact, supported by substantial record evidence, that were pertinent to Atar's specific situation. Id. at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1088.
In its second decision in this case, the court found unlawful the redetermination
Before the court is the redetermination ("Second Remand Redetermination") Commerce issued in response to Atar II, in which Commerce made no change to its CV profit and ISE determinations but concluded that its method of calculating CV profit, which it considered to satisfy the "reasonable method" requirement of the relevant statutory provision, also satisfied the profit cap requirement. Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Ct. Remand Order (Jul. 19, 2010) ("Second Remand Redetermination"). Also before the court is defendant's motion to vacate the court's orders in Atar I and Atar II based on the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("Court of Appeals") in Thai I-Mei Frozen Foods Co. v. United States, 616 F.3d 1300 (Fed.Cir. 2010). Def.'s Consol. Mot. for Relief from this Ct.'s Remand Orders & Reply to Pl.'s Cmts. upon the Second Remand Redetermination 1-8 ("Def.'s Consol. Mot."). That decision, according to defendant, "directly supports" the determinations of CV ISE and profit the court previously held unlawful. Id. at 1-2.
The court concludes that the Second Remand Redetermination does not satisfy the profit cap provision in the statute, which requires Commerce to set the profit cap at the "amount [of profit] normally realized" by home-market exporters/producers in sales "of merchandise that is in the same general category of products as the subject merchandise." Tariff Act of 1930 ("Tariff Act"), § 773, 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B)(iii) (2006). The court also concludes that the holding in Thai I-Mei does not require the court to vacate its previous orders. However, the remand the court is ordering does not preclude Commerce from redetermining CV profit by a method that relies only on above-cost sales, provided Commerce subjects its result to a lawful profit cap.
The background of this litigation is discussed in the court's opinions in Atar I, 33 CIT at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1072-73, and Atar II, 34 CIT at ___, 703 F.Supp.2d at 1361-62. Additional background is presented below as a summary and to address events that have occurred since Atar II was decided.
On June 9, 2010, Commerce requested comments on a draft version of the Second
On July 19, 2010, Commerce filed the Second Remand Redetermination, which assigned Atar the same weighted-average dumping margin, 14.45%, as did the First Remand Redetermination. Second Remand Redetermination 12; First Remand Redetermination 15. On August 18, 2010, Atar filed comments in opposition to the Second Remand Redetermination. Cmts. on Remand Determination.
On August 12, 2010, the Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Thai I-Mei, which overturned a decision of the United States Court of International Trade ("Court of International Trade") and upheld the Department's determination of CV profit by a method that excluded non-ordinary-course sales made in a third-country comparison market. Thai I-Mei, 616 F.3d at 1308-09. On September 27, 2010, defendant filed a consolidated motion requesting relief from the court's orders in Atar I and Atar II pursuant to USCIT Rule 60(b) or in the alternative that the court affirm the Second Remand Redetermination. Def.'s Consol. Mot. Plaintiff opposes defendant's motion. Resp. to Def.'s Consol. Mot. for Relief from this Ct.'s Remand Orders & Reply to Pl.'s Cmts. upon the Second Remand Redetermination. Defendant-intervenors responded neither to the Second Remand Redetermination nor to defendant's motion for relief.
The court exercises jurisdiction under section 201 of the Customs Courts Act of 1980, 28 U.S.C. § 1581(c) (2006), which pertains to actions commenced under section 516A of the Tariff Act, 19 U.S.C. § 1516a, including those contesting the final results of an administrative review issued under section 751 of the Tariff Act, 19 U.S.C. § 1675(a). The court will sustain the Department's determination upon remand if it complies with the court's remand order, is supported by substantial evidence on the record, and is otherwise in accordance with law. See Tariff Act, § 516A, 19 U.S.C. § 1516a(b)(1)(B)(i).
Rejecting certain of plaintiff's claims, the court in Atar I upheld the Department's determination that Atar, which made no home-market sales during the POR, did not have a viable third-country comparison market. Atar I, 33 CIT at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1074-81. Atar I did not uphold the Department's determinations of constructed value profit and ISE, which the Final Results calculated using profit and ISE data obtained from home-market sales made by the six Italian pasta producers (not including Atar) that were respondents in the previous (eighth) administrative review of the order. Id. at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1081-82. In the Final Results, Commerce included in the constructed value ISE and profit calculations only the data on the six producers' home-market sales that Commerce determined
In the First Remand Redetermination, Commerce determined constructed value profit using the data from the home-market sales (both within and outside of the ordinary course of trade) of the two of the six eighth-review respondents that realized an overall profit on sales subject to the eighth review, citing a practice of considering unprofitable companies unsuitable for determining constructed value profit. First Remand Redetermination 6-7. Commerce also used the data of those two companies to determine constructed value ISE, reasoning that a company's profit is a function of its indirect selling expenses. Id. at 10. In Atar II, the court concluded that Commerce acted contrary to law by failing to adhere to the profit cap requirement contained within clause (iii) when determining an amount for constructed value profit. Atar II, 34 CIT at ___, 703 F.Supp.2d at 1370. The court ordered a second remand, directing Commerce to reconsider its determination of constructed value profit and recalculate this amount in a way that satisfies both the profit cap and reasonable method requirements of the statutory provision. Id. at ___, 703 F.Supp.2d 1370. The remand order permitted Commerce "to redetermine the constructed value indirect selling expense at that time." Id. at ___, 703 F.Supp.2d at 1370.
In the Second Remand Redetermination, Commerce made no change in its determinations of constructed value profit and ISE for Atar, again using the data from the home-market sales of the two eighth-review respondents that realized an overall profit. Second Remand Redetermination 2. As the Second Remand Redetermination acknowledges, the First Remand Redetermination did not include a profit cap calculation. Id. at 2 n. 2 ("[T]he Department
Read in pertinent part and in context with clauses (i) and (ii), clause (iii) of 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B) allows Commerce to determine the amount realized for profits based on any "other" reasonable method, i.e., any method other than the methods prescribed by clauses (i) and (ii), and expressly limits the Department's determination of CV profit, as follows:
19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B)(iii).
The data of record from which a profit cap could be calculated, i.e., home-market profit data, consist of data from the home-market pasta sales of Corticella, which was the only respondent other than Atar in the ninth review, and data from the home-market pasta sales of the six respondents in the eighth review. From these data, Commerce chose profit data for the home-market sales of only two of the six eighth-review respondents. Second Remand Redetermination 6. Commerce decided against using the home-market profit data of the other four eighth-review respondents because those respondents did not realize an overall profit from their home-market sales in that review. Id.
The language of the Second Remand Redetermination, although not entirely clear, appears to base the Department's profit cap decision on a statutory construction of clause (iii) that required Commerce to consider only the sales data of
Elsewhere in the Second Remand Redetermination, Commerce appears to rely on grounds other than its statutory construction for its decision to determine a profit cap based on the data of only the two eighth-review respondents that realized an overall profit on home-market sales subject to the eighth review. Commerce stated as follows:
Second Remand Redetermination 6-7 (quoting 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B)(iii)) (alterations in original). Thus, the Second Remand Redetermination appears to offer two justifications to support its decision to exclude the data of the four nonprofitable respondents: a justification based on a construction of the word "profit," as used in clause (iii), under which the Department must base a profit cap on "positive amounts," and a justification based on the Department's conclusion that, on this record, it is reasonable to base the profit cap on the sales of the two profitable eighth-review respondents. The former justification necessarily involves a question of law; the latter, a question of whether substantial
The court reviews the Department's statutory construction of clause (iii) according to the principles of Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 842-44, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). In so doing, the court first considers "whether Congress has directly spoken to the precise question at issue," id. at 842, 104 S.Ct. 2778; if so, the court "must give effect to the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress," id. at 843, 104 S.Ct. 2778. If not, and "the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue, the question for the court is whether the agency's answer is based on a permissible construction of the statute." Id.
The statute does not speak directly to the question of how Commerce is to determine the "profit cap," i.e., "the amount [of profit] normally realized by exporters or producers . . . in connection with the sale, for consumption in the foreign country, of merchandise that is in the same general category of products as the subject merchandise." 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B)(iii). It does not direct that this amount be based on data from administrative reviews—current or previous—nor does it direct that data on unprofitable sales be included or excluded. Cf. Thai I-Mei, 616 F.3d at 1306-07. Because the statute is silent on these points, the court considers the Department's apparent construction of clause (iii) according to the second step of the analysis prescribed by Chevron. Thus, the court considers whether Commerce reasonably interpreted the clause (iii) reference to "profit" such that Commerce was required to consider only the sales data of the profitable home-market exporters and producers.
The Department's construction of the statute is not reasonable. Only a strained reading of the broad language of clause (iii), which contains references to "the amount[] . . . realized for . . . profits," "the amount allowed for profit," and "the amount normally realized by exporters and producers," could require Commerce to limit its profit cap calculation to the data of those producers or exporters who realized a home-market profit over a significant time period (such as the one-year period of the eighth review). Any such construction, even if considered plausible, would confine the Department's discretion drastically. Had Congress intended to limit the Department's discretion in so specific a way, it would have expressed that intent in the language of clause (iii). Further, the SAA does not support the Department's reading, stating that Commerce should choose the data for the profit cap "on a case-by-case basis" and that Commerce will not request from respondents data on which to analyze whether sales in the same general category as the subject merchandise, which form the statutory basis of the profit cap, are above-cost or below-cost sales. SAA at 841, reprinted in 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 4176-77. The SAA goes on to instruct that "[l]ikewise, the Administration does not intend that Commerce would engage in an analysis of whether sales in the same general category are above-cost or otherwise in the ordinary course of trade." Id. at 841, reprinted in 1994 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 4177. Commerce, therefore, erred to whatever extent it based its exclusion of the data of the four non-profitable eighth-review respondents on a statutory construction under which it lacked the discretion to do otherwise.
As explained above, record data pertaining to the home-market profit experience consisted principally of data from the home-market pasta sales of the six respondents in the eighth review. Rather than calculate a profit cap based on all such data, Commerce determined a profit cap according to a weighted average of the profit rates of two of the six eighth-review respondents.
In conclusion, the Department's profit cap determination is unlawful to the extent that it was based on an impermissible construction of clause (iii), and it is also unlawful because it is not supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole. On remand, Commerce must redetermine the profit cap according to a lawful method.
Defendant moves under USCIT Rule 60(b) for the court to vacate the orders in Atar I and Atar II and sustain the Final Results based on the intervening legal decision in Thai I-Mei, 616 F.3d 1300.
In Thai I-Mei, the Court of Appeals upheld the Department's determining the CV profit of plaintiff Thai I-Mei Frozen Foods Co., Ltd., a frozen shrimp producer in Thailand, based on data from sales of the foreign like product (i.e., frozen
This case presents a different factual circumstance than did Thai I-Mei. In Atar I, the court reviewed the Department's determination, as described in an issues and decision memorandum, to calculate Atar's constructed value profit and indirect selling expenses based on data from the previous administrative review of the antidumping duty order on pasta from Italy. Atar I, 33 CIT at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1085-89; Issues & Decision Mem., A-475-818, ARP 6-05, at 21 (Feb. 14, 2007) (Admin.R.Doc. No. 5615). In this case, the availability of data is a factor as it was in Thai I-Mei, but Commerce did not exclude data on non-ordinary-course sales to achieve consistency with other respondents in the ninth review. Nor did Commerce ground its determination to exclude non-ordinary-course sales on specific circumstances other than the availability of data, as Commerce indicated it would do in the preamble to the antidumping regulations. Atar I, 33 CIT at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1085; see Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, 62 Fed. Reg. 27,296, 27,358-59 (May 19, 1997) ("[D]epending on the circumstances and the availability of data, there may be instances in which the Department would consider it necessary to exclude certain home market sales that are outside the ordinary course of trade . . . .") (emphasis added). Due to the differences in the two cases, the court does not agree with defendant that the holding in Thai I-Mei requires affirmance of the Final Results in this proceeding.
Also, this case, unlike Thai I-Mei, presents the issue of compliance with the profit cap requirement of clause (iii).
In the Final Results, "Commerce used the same data set, and the same methodology, to calculate the profit cap that it used to calculate Atar's constructed value profit." Id. at ___, 637 F.Supp.2d at 1088. Thus, the Department's profit cap was the weighted average of the profit realized by respondents during the eighth administrative review on home-market sales in the ordinary course of trade. The reasoning by which the court is rejecting the profit cap in Second Remand Redetermination also applies to the profit cap Commerce incorporated into the Final Results. As demonstrated by the record evidence that four of the six respondents failed to realize an overall profit, below-cost sales were a significant feature of the home-market conditions affecting the marketing of pasta in Italy. As a result, substantial evidence does not support a determination that the profit cap incorporated into the Final Results reflected the "amount normally realized by exporters or producers . . . in connection with the sale, for consumption in the foreign country, of merchandise that is in the same general category of products as the subject merchandise. . . ." 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(e)(2)(B)(iii). As the court has emphasized, a profit cap determination must be supported by substantial evidence present on the administrative record considered as a whole. And as the court discussed previously, a determination is not supported by substantial evidence if it disregards record data that is probative of the general conditions in the home market affecting the profitability of domestic pasta producers who operate in that market. The profit cap determined for the Final Results, therefore, would not satisfy the remand order the court now issues in this case.
In sum, the court will not grant defendant's motion for relief from the court's prior orders in this case. However, based on the general principle of deference on which the Court of Appeals based its decision in Thai I-Mei, the court considers that Commerce, on remand, may be able to explain adequately why a CV profit amount that is redetermined by a method excluding non-ordinary-course sales satisfies the "reasonable method" requirement of clause (iii). As required by the statute, the result of any such redetermination still must be tested according to the profit cap requirement.
The court concludes that the Second Remand Redetermination does not subject the determination of a CV profit amount to a lawful profit cap and therefore cannot be affirmed. The court also denies relief on defendant's motion requesting that the court affirm the Final Results. The court will order Commerce to reconsider the constructed value profit as determined in the Second Remand Redetermination and to redetermine constructed value profit in a way that imposes a lawful profit cap. In preparing a remand redetermination, the Department may redetermine constructed value ISE.
Upon review of the Results of Redetermination pursuant to Court Remand, as filed on July 19, 2010 ("Second Remand Redetermination"), the parties' comments, and all other papers and proceedings herein, and upon due deliberation, it is hereby
Notice of Final Results of the Ninth Admin. Review of the Antidumping Duty Order on Certain Pasta from Italy, 72 Fed.Reg. 7,011, 7,012 (Feb. 14, 2007).
Tariff Act of 1930, § 771, 19 U.S.C. § 1677(15) (2006). Section 1677b(b)(1) provides:
Id., § 1677b(b)(1). Below cost sales were made in "substantial quantities" if "the weighted average per unit price of the sales under consideration for the determination of normal value is less than the weighted average per unit cost of production for such sales." Id., § 1677b(b)(2)(C)(ii).