CIT Accepts CV Rate Calculation for Hysco in 2009 South Korea Flat Products Review

The Court of International Trade on July 31 sustained part of the subsidy rate calculated for Hyundai Hysco in the 2009 countervailing duty administrative review of corrosion-resistant carbon steel flat products from South Korea (C-580-818). Domestic company U.S. Steel challenged the interest rate benchmark used to determine the amount of subsidy Hysco received from a South Korean government loan program. The Commerce Department had compared an agency-constructed monthly average interest rate with the variable rate loan Hysco actually received. It eventually found the loan program to be not countervailable, because the benefit was de minimis. U.S. Steel said Commerce couldn’t use an “artificial” benchmark to value the subsidy. But CIT was “not convinced” that a constructed benchmark is necessarily artificial, and found Commerce’s actions were within agency discretion.