CIT Says Thermal Paper Made in 3rd Country but Converted in China Outside of AD Scope
The Court of International Trade sustained a scope ruling that found thermal paper jumbo rolls produced in a third country but converted to thermal paper ready for consumer use by Paper Resources in China to be outside of the scope of the antidumping duty order on lightweight thermal paper from China (A-570-920).
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Appvion (formerly Appleton Papers) conceded that the conversion process, which amounts to simply cutting the jumbo rolls into smaller slips, doesn’t substantially transform the merchandise for the purposes of Commerce’s country of origin determination. Commerce had found the paper out of scope because the country of origin was the unnamed third country, rather than China. But among other arguments, Appvion said that the language of the scope said even only conversion of thermal paper in China renders merchandise subject to the order.
The court disagreed, finding no scope language that specifically included thermal paper only coverted in China. The court also sustained Commerce’s decision that the merchandise wasn’t circumventing the order (the paper was never of Chinese origin, so couldn’t circumvent), and found Commerce’s decision not to require origin certifications from importers reasonable, given the lack of a circumvention finding.
(Appleton Papers Inc. v. United States, Slip Op. 13-87, dated 07/11/13, public version 07/12/13, Judge Tsoucalas)
(Attorneys: Gilbert Kaplan of King & Spalding for plaintiff Appleton Papers, Inc.; Stuart Delery for defendant U.S. government; Rosa Jeong of Greenberg Traurig for defendant-intervenor Paper Resources LLC)