CIT Mostly Upholds CV Duty Investigation on South Korea Washers

The Court of International Trade on April 11 mostly upheld the results of the Commerce Department’s countervailing duty investigation on large residential washers from South Korea, in the face of a challenge from Samsung Electronics. Among other things, Samsung challenged Commerce’s finding that a subsidy was “specific” -- in order to be countervailable, a subsidy has to be targeted at a limited group of companies. The court ordered Commerce to reconsider its determination that a tax credit program was in effect specific because Samsung was given a large percentage of the total subsidies disbursed. The high proportion wasn’t enough to find the subsidy specific; Commerce needed to consider other underlying factors, said CIT. But the trade court sustained Commerce’s determination that the tax credit was specific because it was only available in a certain region. Samsung protested that the region where the subsidy was available comprised 98% of the country of South Korea, but CIT said it doesn’t matter how big the area is, only that it’s a limited area.