Opinion ID: 467629
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: ITA Powers To Clarify Scope.

Text: 23 The lower court, relying on Diversified Products, remanded this case to the ITA for a determination as to whether shunt reactors were within the class or kind of merchandise encompassed by large power transformers. The lower court specifically found the ITA to be in error as to its initial determination that it had no authority to modify the scope of an underlying antidumping determination by Treasury. For the reasons set out below, we reverse the lower court on this issue. 24 Court of International Trade case law correctly recognizes that the ITA section 751 review of an antidumping determination of Treasury is limited by the scope of the underlying finding. 15 Although the ITA has the power, during a section 751 review, to determine whether an unclassified article is within the scope of an original Treasury antidumping finding, 16 the ITA cannot change the scope of an underlying antidumping determination when Treasury has specifically included the article within the scope of its underlying determination. 17 25 Here, the Treasury made its antidumping determination in 1972. The Treasury's actions during its investigation indicate that its original less than fair value investigation involved a single class or kind of merchandise--large power transformers from France. The Treasury specifically determined that the class or kind of merchandise--large power transformers--included several forms of transformers including shunt reactors. There is no question that the class or kind of merchandise initially investigated by the Government included shunt reactors. 26 Alsthom contends that 19 U.S.C. Sec. 1673 invested the ITA with the obligation to take up antidumping investigations where it found them in 1980 and to review every fact that was needed to fix the amount of dumping duty or deposit. Alsthom asserts that, in order for the ITA to perform this statutory task, the ITA first must have determined that there was an existing dumping finding that included shunt reactors, namely, whether shunt reactors are of the same type or class of merchandise as large power transformers. While it is true that the ITA must determine whether there was an existing dumping finding that included the item, once the ITA determines that the Treasury included the item under its original antidumping determination, the ITA's inquiry into that issue ceases. Alsthom's assertion, if accepted, would lead the ITA into an impossible task of reviewing de novo each and every Treasury antidumping determination to determine whether Treasury correctly included the article in question within the scope of its underlying antidumping determination. In a section 751 review, the ITA does not have the power to substitute its judgment for Treasury's when Treasury has specifically included an item within its antidumping determination.