Opinion ID: 210161
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Commerce's Model-Match Methodology

Text: Lastly, NSK challenges what it characterizes as Commerce's decision to abandon its long-established practice of matching models using the family approach in future administrative reviews. During the course of the administrative review at issue in this case, Commerce issued a memorandum indicating that it is considering changing the model-match approach it uses for antidumping orders in order to determine the single most similar comparison-market model, taking advantage of intervening technological developments, that make possible a more precise model match in future reviews. NSK attempted to challenge this decision before the Court of International Trade, but the court dismissed NSK's challenge for lack of jurisdiction, saying the issue was not ripe for adjudication. NSK I, 416 F.Supp.2d at 1340. We agree. Generally, an agency decision is not ripe for judicial review until the allegedly offending agency has adopted a final decision. Abbott Labs. v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 149, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967). As the Supreme Court has pointed out, this requirement is designed to prevent the courts . . . from entangling themselves in abstract disagreements over administrative policies, and also to protect the agencies from judicial interference until an administrative decision has been formalized and its effects felt in a concrete way by the challenging parties. Id. at 148-49, 87 S.Ct. 1507. Accordingly, in order to be a final decision, and therefore ripe for judicial review, (1) there must be an agency action that marks the consummation of the agency's decisionmaking process, i.e., it must not be merely tentative or interlocutory, and (2) the action must be one by which rights or obligations have been determined, or from which legal consequences will flow. Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 177, 117 S.Ct. 1154, 137 L.Ed.2d 281 (1997). Although Commerce has recommended changing its model-match methodology, Commerce has not yet abandoned its previous methodology or adopted a new one. In fact, Commerce has publicly stated that it will change its methodology only after parties have had a meaningful opportunity to comment on the proposed change. Commerce's recommendation to change its methodology in future administrative reviews was not, as NSK contends, the consummation of the agency's decision-making process, and thus not a final decision. Accordingly, we affirm the Court of International Trade's dismissal of NSK's challenge to Commerce's recommendation.