U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Solarworld Americas, Inc. v. United States, Docket 18-1373

Customs

Harmonized System

HTSUS

Tariff Classification

Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988

Import

Antidumping Duty

Appeal from the United States Court of International Trade in Nos. 1:15-cv-00196-CRK, 1:15-cv-00231-CRK, Judge Claire R. Kelly.

“The World Customs Organization publishes the explanatory notes as its official interpretation of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (the Harmonized System), the global system of trade nomenclature . . . .” Schlumberger Tech. Corp. v. United States, 845 F.3d 1158, 1163 n.6 (Fed. Cir. 2017). “The United States and its major trading partners . . . developed a single modern product nomenclature for international use as a standard system of classifying goods for customs,” and therefore base their tariff classification schedules on the Harmonized System. Michael Simon Design, Inc. v. United States, 637 F. Supp. 2d 1218, 1220 (Ct. Int’l Trade 2009). For instance, in 1988, Congress passed legislation implementing the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”). Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, Pub. L. No. 100-418, § 1201, 102 Stat. 1107, 1147.

(SolarWorld argues as a legal matter that Customs’ rulings must be afforded more weight than other evidence on the record, we disagree. Whereas Customs is tasked with “fixing the final classification” of imported merchandise under the HTSUS, 19 U.S.C. § 1500; see United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 221–24 (2001) (outlining Customs’ role in classification), Commerce is authorized to conduct administrative reviews of an antidumping duty order to “determine . . . the amount of any antidumping duty” necessary to remedy the effect of foreign merchandise being sold in the United States at less than its fair value, 19 U.S.C. § 1675(a)(1)(B); see id. § 1673. In accordance with this authorization, the statute affords Commerce “broad discretion” in identifying the best available information on the record to value factors of production. QVD Food, 658 F.3d at 1323; see 19 U.S.C. § 1677b(c)(1)(B)).

(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, Dec. 12, 2018, Solarworld Americas, Inc. v. United States, Docket 18-1373, Wallach, Circuit Judge)