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U.S. federal court decision a win for AAHP
June 28, 2016 – The U.S. Court of International Trade released its public decision upholding the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) core findings that Chinese and domestic plywood differ so significantly the ITC was correct to conclude imports from China had no impact on the domestic industry’s competitive and financial position.
June 28, 2016 By Brandi Cowen
This decision is a victory for the American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood (AAHP) and its members, who argued the domestic plywood producers’ antidumping and countervailing duty complaint should be thrown out because fundamental differences in the Chinese and domestic products mean the Chinese product cannot cause any competitive harm to the domestic producers.
The ITC unanimously agreed with the AAHP, terminating the unfair trade case in November 2013. The Court of International Trade’s ruling now confirms the ITC’s core findings and means the AAHP’s legal theory was supported by evidence while the petitioners’ opposing theories were not.
The court did send the case back to the ITC to specifically address the Commerce Department’s final antidumping duty levels as well as the countervailing duty findings. However, the court only ordered the ITC to provide further explanation on these issues and did not authorize the ITC to revisit its core finding that Chinese plywood had no impact on the domestic plywood industry.
The AAHP is confident the ITC will conclude the Commerce Department’s antidumping and countervailing duty findings are irrelevant and therefore cannot disturb the ITC’s “no injury” finding.
As analogized in AAHP’s prior statement, the decision is “like giving the ITC an A on its term paper but asking them to fill out footnote citations to raise its grade to an A+.”
To read the full decision from the court, click here.
The American Alliance for Hardwood Plywood is an organization of American importers, distributors and manufacturers of hardwood plywood, along with other U.S. companies that depend on the availability of global resources.
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