Commerce finalized its findings that Thai exports of circular welded carbon steel pipes and tubes, which are used in plumbing and air conditioning systems, were being dumped in the U.S. between March 2019 and February 2020, according to a review published Wednesday. 

The agency cemented uniform anti-dumping duties for all Thai exporters, attributing the more than five-fold increase since June to mandatory respondent Saha Thai Steel Pipe Public Co. Ltd.'s failure to report the existence of some affiliated home-market customers to Commerce.

The department's conclusion comes as it is engaged in a battle with a Thai exporter over the preceding year's review before the U.S. Court of International Trade.

After taking up the annual review of decades-old anti-dumping order in May 2020, Commerce tapped Blue Pipe Steel Center as a mandatory respondent, later to be replaced by its supplier Saha Thai.

During the course of its investigation, the agency found Saha Thai didn't indicate which of its home-market customers it is affiliated with and which are managed by relatives of its directors.

Commerce then applied adverse facts — a tool used to inflate margins for companies the agency believes haven't cooperated — to calculate Saha Thai's home market net prices.

The department also found that two companies, the original mandatory respondent Blue Pipe and K Line Logistics Ltd., did not export any goods subject to the duties during the period in question.

The duties, in place since 1986, have been the subject of litigation on several fronts over the past year.

Saha Thai sued the government over the results of the 2018-2019 administrative review before the Court of International Trade in February, challenging the 37.55% tariff Commerce issued on its products after it found the exporter to be noncompliant in handing over sales data.

The exporter moved for a win in October, accusing the agency of presenting the trade court with "misleading" information in support of its allegedly unlawful steep duties.

Earlier that month, Saha Thai had won against Commerce when a CIT judge found the agency improperly expanded the duty order to cover the exporter's dual-stenciled pipes, finding the decision changed the scope of the original order.

In December 2020, the trade court also ordered Commerce to recalculate the results of a 2016-2017 administrative review after finding the federal government failed to adhere to a prior ruling from the court that narrowed Commerce's ability to find that a "particular market situation" distorted Thai companies' home market sales of the steel pipe goods.

A representative for Saha Thai did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The case is Circular Welded Carbon Steel Pipes and Tubes from Thailand, case number A-549-502 before the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration.

Source: Law360