Opinion ID: 3007030
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sixth Administrative Review

Text: Hilltop was again selected as a mandatory respondent in the Sixth Review. In the Preliminary Results of that review, issued on March 2, 2012, Hilltop received separate rate status and a de minimis duty rate. See Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp from the People’s Republic of China, 77 Fed. Reg. 12,801 (Dep’t of Commerce Mar. 2, AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES 9 2012) (preliminary results, partial rescission, extension of time limits for the final results, and intent to revoke, in part, of the sixth antidumping duty administrative review). On March 12, 2012, however, the Shrimp Trade Committee placed on the record public information it obtained following the convictions of several individuals associated with Hilltop and its United States affiliate, Ocean Duke Corp. (“Ocean Duke”). These materials indicate that in March 2011, Mr. Duke Chau-Shing Lin (“Mr. Lin”), the president of Ocean Duke, and the Government entered into a written plea agreement wherein Mr. Lin pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts with respect to the misbranding of certain fish imports. The information includes the sentencing report prepared by the Government, which contains information about its five-year investigation into a scheme to transship shrimp illegally into the United States through Cambodia beginning shortly after the publication of the original antidumping duty order. The information also references Hilltop’s Cambodian affiliate, Ocean King (Cambodia) (“Ocean King”), and includes emails from 2004 between Mr. Lin and Mr. To discussing the establishment of a Cambodian shrimp processing factory and the shipment of shrimp from Vietnam to Cambodia for repackaging and relabeling. The documents also include import data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection demonstrating that, between May 2004 and July 2005, Ocean Duke (Hilltop’s U.S. affiliate) imported over fifteen million pounds of shrimp declared as product of Cambodia, followed by an additional 143 entries attributable to Ocean King in the second half of 2005. Official production data from the Cambodian government, by contrast, indicates Cambodia produced less than 400,000 pounds of shrimp during all of 2004 and 2005. 10 AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES In response to this information, Hilltop again insisted it was “not affiliated with any company producing shrimp in Cambodia. In other words, Hilltop is not affiliated with Ocean King. . . . Hilltop confirms that neither the company, nor its owners or officers, invested any funds in Ocean King.” J.A.-1647, at 3424; J.A.-1514, at 3343. Mr. To again certified these statements as “accurate and complete.” J.A.-1647, at 3426; J.A.-1514, at 3345. Commerce then issued another supplemental questionnaire to Hilltop asking, among other things, whether the company had a Cambodian affiliate called Ocean King. The questionnaire specifically warned Hilltop that non-cooperation could result in a rate calculated using “adverse facts available” (“AFA”). See 19 U.S.C. § 1677e(a)(2)(A)–(D) (2006). In its questionnaire response, Hilltop stated there was no valid basis for making inquiries regarding prior administrative reviews in the context of the present (sixth) review. Relying on that argument, it only provided information from the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Reviews, 5 but declined to answer questions from earlier reviews, stating it would not be relevant to the Sixth Review. The company also responded it was improper to investigate transshipment allegations in an antidumping administrative review proceeding. Hilltop also restated it “had no Cambodian affiliate or Cambodian affiliates,” and “had no affiliation or business dealings with Ocean King (Cambodia).” J.A.-1647, at 3621, 3623; J.A.-1514, at 3809. 5 Because in the Sixth Review Hilltop sought a “three-zero revocation” from the Order, which allows the revocation of an antidumping order if, among other things, all covered exporters and producers “have sold the subject merchandise at not less than normal value for a period of at least three consecutive years,” 19 C.F.R. § 351.222(b)(1)(i)(A) (2009), Hilltop acknowledged the information from the Fourth and Fifth Reviews was relevant to the Sixth Review. AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES 11 Commerce then placed Ocean King’s Cambodian pub- lic registration documents on the record. These documents show Ocean King was established in 2005 by Mr. To, Hilltop’s general manager and part-owner, and two Cambodian individuals, and that Mr. To served as one of Ocean King’s board members and was a 35% shareholder. Commerce then issued Hilltop another supplemental questionnaire asking the company to reconcile its prior responses that it had no affiliation with any Cambodian companies with these registration documents, and again warned that non-cooperation could result in application of AFA. In its response, Hilltop admitted it was affiliated with Ocean King until September 28, 2010 (about halfway through the Sixth Review) and that it had made “sales of Cambodian origin shrimp” during the Fourth Review. J.A.-1647, at 3703; J.A.-1514, at 3622. The company, however, continued to refuse to comment on the alleged transshipment activities. In a subsequent filing, Hilltop explained Mr. To’s “prior statements on affiliation may have been in error (e.g., due to his lack of operational involvement with Ocean King or for whatever reason).” J.A.-1647, at 2181; J.A.-1514, at 2112. On September 4, 2012, Commerce published its Final Results for the Sixth Review. Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp from the People’s Republic of China, 77 Fed. Reg. 53,856 (Dep’t of Commerce Sept. 4, 2012) (final results of administrative review). Commerce determined Hilltop impeded the Sixth Review by repeatedly failing to disclose its five-year affiliation with Ocean King and by denying the affiliation until Commerce placed irrefutable evidence on the record. Id. at 53,859. Further, Commerce found Hilltop’s misrepresentations rendered the entirety of its submissions unusable and therefore the company failed to rebut the presumption that it was part of the China-wide entity, as required for separate rate status. Accordingly, 12 AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES instead of a separate rate, Hilltop was assigned the China-wide rate of 112.81%, which was based on AFA. D. Further Proceedings in the Fourth and Fifth Administrative Reviews On August 5, 2013, Commerce added the information from the Sixth Review to the Fourth Review’s record. On the basis of this information, Commerce determined in its Remand Results that Hilltop “provided false and incomplete information regarding its affiliates in the fourth administrative review” due to its omission of Ocean King from its list of third-country affiliates. Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Court Remand (Fourth Review), at 2 (Dep’t of Commerce Nov. 4, 2013) (J.A.-1647, at 4034) (“AR4 Remand Results”). Commerce also determined the omission of Ocean King from Hilltop’s list of affiliates rendered all other information submitted by Hilltop unreliable, and consequently Hilltop had not rebutted the presumption that it was part of the Chinawide entity. Id. Hilltop was therefore assigned the China-wide rate of 112.81%. Id. Similarly, on February 14, 2013, 6 Commerce placed the information from the Sixth Review on the record for the Fifth Review. On the basis of this information, Commerce concluded, as it did in the Fourth Review, that Hilltop “provided false and incomplete information re- 6 As is evident, the Fifth Review preceded the Fourth Review by several months and arrived at the CIT first. The remand on corroboration issues in the Fifth Review and the voluntary remand in the Fourth Review then proceeded roughly simultaneously, and the corroboration analyses in the Fourth Review Remand Results and Fifth Review Second Remand Results are identical. For this reason, they were jointly addressed in the CIT’s opinion in Ad Hoc Shrimp II. AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES 13 garding its affiliates” due to its omission of Ocean King from its list of third-country affiliates. Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Court Remand (Fifth Review) (First Remand), at 2 (Dep’t of Commerce Apr. 1, 2013) (J.A.-1514, at 3803) (“AR5 1st Remand Results”). Therefore, as in the Fourth Review, Commerce determined the omission of Ocean King from Hilltop’s list of affiliates rendered all other information submitted by Hilltop unreliable, and the company failed to rebut the presumption that it was part of the China-wide entity. Id. Accordingly, Hilltop was assigned the China-wide rate of 112.81%. Id. In Ad Hoc Shrimp I, Hilltop challenged Commerce’s First Remand Results for the Fifth Review as not supported by substantial evidence. Ad Hoc Shrimp I, 925 F. Supp. 2d at 1317. On July 23, 2013, the CIT sustained Commerce’s determination to deny Hilltop separate rate status, but remanded for review of Commerce’s selection of the antidumping duty rate for the China-wide entity (including Hilltop) because it found Commerce had failed to corroborate the rate as required by statute. Id. at 1327 (“On remand, Commerce must either adequately corroborate the 112.81 percent [China]-wide rate and explain how its corroboration satisfies the requirements of [the statute], or calculate or choose a different countrywide rate that better reflects commercial reality, as supported by substantial evidence.”). On a second remand, Commerce placed on the record information from the underlying antidumping duty investigation and a Section 129 Proceeding 7 that followed 7 “Section 129” refers to proceedings undertaken in response to a decision by the World Trade Organization’s (“WTO”) Dispute Settlement Body that a United States trade agency’s determination is inconsistent with the United States’s obligations as a member of the WTO’s 14 AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES China’s appeal of the original antidumping investigation to the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body. 8 The information included CONNUM9-specific margin data for a mandatory respondent in the original investigation, Shantou Red Garden Foodstuff Co., Ltd. (“Red Garden”), as recalculated after the Section 129 Proceeding. Hilltop submitted comments on this new data and requested additional Antidumping and/or Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreements. See 19 U.S.C. § 3538(b). The Section 129 determination at issue here is Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp from the People’s Republic of China and Diamond Sawblades and Parts Thereof from the People’s Republic of China, 78 Fed. Reg. 18,958 (Dep’t of Commerce Mar. 28, 2013) (notice of implementation of determinations under Section 129 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act and partial revocation of the antidumping duty orders) (“Section 129 Determination”). 8 As discussed below, this information was also used to corroborate the selection of the 112.81% rate in the Fourth Review. 9 As described in Ad Hoc Shrimp II, 992 F. Supp. 2d at 1296, in its antidumping proceedings, Commerce uses different control numbers (“CONNUMs”) “to identify the individual models of products for matching purposes.” See, e.g., Final Results of Redetermination Pursuant to Court Remand (Fifth Review) (Second Remand), at 5 n.18 (Dep’t of Commerce Nov. 7, 2013) (J.A.-1514, at 4262–86) (“AR5 2nd Remand Results”). “Identical products are assigned the same CONNUM in both the comparison market sales database (or in a nonmarket economy context, the factors of production database) and U.S. sales database.” Id. (citing Antidumping Manual, ch. 4, at 10 (Oct. 13, 2009)). “CONNUM-specific margins result in calculated margins that represent the pricing behavior related to groups of sales,” grouped by model type. Id. at 13. AD HOC SHRIMP TRADE ACTION COMM. v. UNITED STATES 15 information be placed on the record. In response, Commerce placed on the record additional information for Red Garden from the Section 129 Proceeding. On November 4, 2013, Commerce issued its Second Remand Results, continuing to use the 112.81% rate as the China-wide rate as corroborated by the additional record evidence. See generally AR5 2nd Remand Results. In Ad Hoc Shrimp II, the CIT addressed Commerce’s separate rate determination for the Fourth Review as well as its corroboration of the China-wide rate of 112.81% in both the Fourth and Fifth Reviews. The CIT affirmed (1) Commerce’s separate rate status determination in the Fourth Review for the reasons stated in affirming the Fifth Review’s First Remand Results in Ad Hoc Shrimp I, and (2) the selection of the China-wide rate based on AFA assigned to Hilltop for both the Fourth and Fifth Reviews. Hilltop appeals the CIT’s affirmance of Commerce’s denial of separate rate status in the Fourth and Fifth Reviews as well as the CIT’s holding with respect to corroboration of the China-wide rate Hilltop received. This court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(5) (2012).