SKF USA INC., SKF F RANCE S.A., SKF

AEROSPAC E FR

ANCE S.A.S., SKF Gm bH, an d SKF INDUSTRIE S.p .A. ,

Plaintiffs,

v. UNITED STAT ES , Def endant, and THE T IMK

EN COMP ANY , Def endant- Interve nor.

Slip Op. 10-76 UNITED STAT ES COURT OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Before: Tim othy C. Stanceu, Judge Court No. 08- 00322

OP INION [Affirming a

rede termination of the f

inal results of an a

ntidumping administrative re view in which the United States D epar tment of Commerce rec alculate d the construc ted value of merc handise obtaine d from an una ffiliated supplier] Dated: July 7, 2010 Steptoe &Johnson LLP

( Herbe rt C. Shelley , Alice A. Kipel , and Laura R. Ardito ) for plaintiffs. Tony W est , Assistant Attorney

Gene ral, JeanneE. Davidson , Direc tor, Patricia M. McCarthy , Assistant Director , Commercial L itigation B ranc h, Civil Division, United St ates Depa rtment of Just ice (

L. Misha Preheim ); Joanna V. Theiss and Brian R. Soiset , Offic e of the Chief Counsel for Import Administration, United St ates De partment of Commerc e, of c ounsel, for de fenda

nt. Stewart and Stewart

( Gee rt M. De Pre

st , TerenceP. Stewart , W illiam A. Fennell , and Lane S. Hurewitz ) for

defe ndant-interve nor.Court No. 08- 00322 P age 2

Stanceu, Judge : The cour t has revie wed the Re sults of Redetermination Pursuant to Court Remand (“ Remand Redete rmination”) f iled by the International Trade Administration, United States Depa

rtment of Commerce (“Commerc e” or the “De partment” ) on Mar ch 16, 2010. Plaintiffs SKF USA Inc., SKF F ranc e S.A., SKF Ae rospac e F ranc e S.A.S., SKF GmbH (“ SKF Ger many” or “ SKF GmbH” ), and SKF Industrie S.p.A. (collec tively , “SKF” or “pla intiffs”) broug ht this action to contest a final de termination that Commerce issued in the eighteenth administrative re views of a ntidumping duty

order s on ball bearings a nd parts ther eof f

rom Fr ance , Ger

many , Italy , J apan, a

nd the United King dom (the “F inal Results”). See B all Bearings &Parts Thereof From France, G ermany , Italy, Japan, &the United Kingdom: Final Results of Antidumping Duty Admin. Rev iews &Rescission of Rev iews in Part , 73 Fe d. Reg . 52,823 (Sept. 11, 2008) (“

Final Results ”). The court c oncluded that the D epar tment acted c ontrary

to law in dra wingan infe renc e adve rse to SKF G mbH and orde red the Depa rtment to rede termine the construc ted value of

SKF GmbH’ s mercha

ndise without using an a dverse infere nce. SKF USA Inc . v. United States , 33 CI T __, __, 675 F. Supp. 2d 1264, 1278 (2009)

. In SKF , the cour t determined that the Depa rtment ac ted lawf

ully in reque sting c ost of production (“ COP”) data f rom an una ffiliated supplier of SKF GmbH. Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1269-72. The court fur ther he ld that the Depa

rtment ac ted within its authority in rejec ting the untimely submissi on of the COP data by the unaf filiated supplier a

nd that Commerce w as authorized to use “f

acts other wise ava ilable” to dete rmine construc ted value f or the subjec t bear ings. Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1272- 74. Howeve r, in ca lculatingthe 4.15% a ntidumping duty rate assig ned to SKF GmbH in the F inal Results, Com merc e, invokingfac ts otherwise available and an a dverse infere nce pur suant to 19 U.S.C. § 1677e (2006), applied a rate ofCourt No. 08- 00322 P age 3

17.66% to the sales of

subject merc handise that SKF GmbH purc hased f rom the unaf

filiated supplier bec ause the reque sted COP information pertainingto that supplier was not timely submitt ed to Commerce duringthe re view. Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1268. The court conclude d that the Depa

rtment ac ted contra

ry to law in draw ing a

n infere nce a dverse to SKF GmbH upon the fa ilure of the una ffiliated supplier to makea timely submissi on of the re quested COP data bec ause Commerc e made no “findingthat SKF GmbH or any other of the plaintiffs failed to re spond to the best of its ability ” as r equire d by 19 U.S.C. § 1677e(b). Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1274. The c ourt direc ted the De partment to “r eca lculate SKF GmbH’s mar g in after rede terminingthe construc ted value of the subject mer chandise SKF GmbH obtaine d from the unaff iliated supplier” using“ava ilable re cord e vidence , without using an infe renc e adve rse to SKF GmbH.” Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1278. The court noted tha t [o] n the re cord a s it stood at the tim e Commerce reje cted the untimely -submitted COP data, the re cord infor mation and “f

acts other wise ava ilable” include d the rec ord data

perta ining to the a cquisition costs incurred by SKF GmbH, a

source of information that Commerce had dete rmined wa s rea sonable a nd appropriate for deter mining construc ted value in numer ous previous re views of the a ntidumping duty order

. Id. at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1277- 78. The c ourt stated that Commerce a lso had discre tion to readmit to the rec ord, and c onsider usingas fa cts otherwise a

vailable, the pr eviously -re jected COP data , which ar rived only

three business day s late, a de lay that was so short that it must be presumed to be immaterial to the timely

completion of the re view. B oth the COP data and the acquisition cost data ha d the virtue of be aringa probative relationship t o the subject merc handise Commerc e wa s attempting to va lue. Id . at __, 675 F. Supp. 2d at 1278.Court No. 08- 00322 P age 4

In the Remand Rede termination, Commerce deter mined that “[b] eca

use SKF G erma

ny ’s acquisition cost is the only cost information on the re cord, pur suant to the Court’s instructions we have r eca lculated the dumpingmarg in for SKF G erma ny using the acquisition costs it reported for the pe riod of re view.” Re mand Redete rmination 2. As a re sult, the weig hted-avera g e dumping mar g in for SKF GmbH for the pe riod May 1, 2006 throug h April 30, 2007 dec rea sed from 4.15% to 1.97%. Id . at 3. Commerce did not use information adve rse to SKF G mbH to

rec alculate the construc ted value f or the subjec t bear ings, in a ccor dancewith the court’s or der. Id. at 2-3 ; seeSKF, 33 CI T at __, 675 F . Supp. 2d at 1278, 1286. The c ourt allowed pla intiffs and def endant- intervenor

thirty day s from the submission of Commerce’ s remand r edete rmination in which to file with the cour t comments on the Remand Redeter mination. SKF

, 33 CI T at __, 675 F . Supp. 2d at 1286. Neither the plaintiffs nor defe ndant-interve nor filed c omments. Remand Redeter mination 1. Moreover , plaintiffs and defe ndant-interve nor filed letter s with the court dec laringthey have no intention of f

iling such

comments . See Letter from Steptoe&Johnson LLP to U.S. Ct . of Int’l Trade (Apr. 15, 2010) ; Letter from Stewart & Stewart to U.S. Ct . of Int’l Trade (Apr. 21, 2010) . Under these circ umstances, the c ourt rea sonably may infer that the parties c oncur in the Rema nd Redeter mination. See W

uhan BeeHealthy Co. v. U nited States , 32 CI T__, __, Slip Op. 08-61, at 12 (May

29, 2008) (“ Under

such circ umstances, Commerc e ‘ma y well be e ntitled to assume that the silent party

has dec ided, on re flec tion, that it concurs in the ag ency ’s [remand re sults] ,’ and the c ourt will uphold the parties’ c oncurr ence .” (quoting AL Tech Spec ialty Steel Corp. v. United States , 29 CI T 276, 285, 366 F. Supp. 2d 1236, 1245 (2005) )). The court ther efor e will aff irm the Remand Rede termination on the assumed c oncurr ence of the pa rties.Court No. 08- 00322 P age 5

In addition, the court will g rant de clar atory relief on plaintiffs’ cla im challeng ing the policy , rule, or pr actice of the De partment to issue liquidation instructions fifteen day s after the publication of the fina l results of an a dminist rative r eview ( the “f ifteen- day policy”). SKF

, 33 CI T at __, 675 F . Supp. 2d at 1286. For the rea sons stated in SKF , 33 CI T at __, 675 F . Supp. 2d at 1280-85, the c ourt will enter a decla ratory judgme nt that the Depa

rtment’s fifte en-da

y policy is contrar y to law.

/s/ Timot hy C. St ance u Timothy C. St ance u J udg e Dated: July

7, 2010 New Y ork, Ne w York