Opinion ID: 766349
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Exemption From Dockyard Fees

Text: 85 Commerce also determined that POSCO received a benefit from the exemption from dockyard fees. POSCO built and paid for fifteen of the eighteen port berths at the KBIE because the Korean government was experiencing budget-related delays. The parties agree that Korean law required POSCO to cede ownership of the fifteen berths to the Korean government upon completion. The Korean government sought to reimburse POSCO by exempting POSCO from dockyard fees that all other companies using the port were required to pay. The parties contest the characterization of that exemption and whether a benefit was conferred on POSCO by the exemption. The Korean producers contend that the exemption is not a benefit because POSCO relieved the Korean government of costs it would have normally assumed. 86 In the Final Determination, Commerce determined that a countervailable benefit was conferred on POSCO by the exemption from dockyard fees regardless of whether the fifteen port berths were built directly by the Korean government or by POSCO. Commerce explained that if the Korean government had built the port berths, instead of having them ceded by POSCO, Commerce would have countervailed the construction funding as a specific infrastructure benefit, as in the case of the infrastructure of the KBIE. We are convinced that Commerce's determination is supported by substantial evidence, and that the exemption provided POSCO a countervailable benefit. 87 Commerce's determination that (1) the Korean government provided a specific countervailable benefit to the steel industry, in particular POSCO, through the construction of infrastructure at the KBIE and that (2) POSCO's exemption from dockyard user fees constituted a countervailable benefit are supported by substantial evidence. The judgment of the Court of International Trade in these respects is affirmed.