Urea producers await ITC review of antidumping case

Washington-In a first for an antidumping trade case involving urea fertilizer in the U.S., the U.S. Court of International Trade (ITC) has been ordered by a U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) judge to reexamine certain aspects of its 2005 sunset review decision to continue antidumping duty orders on solid urea imports from Russia and Ukraine. The six-member ITC, which is conducting the review because of an Aug. 28 appeals ruling by the CIT judge (GM Sept. 10, p. 1), is expected to issue the details of its review process in the next several weeks. The ITC commissioners in 2005 voted in a split decision to keep the antidumping duties in place for another five years, claiming that removing them would likely lead to a “continuation or recurrence of material injury” to domestic urea producers “within a reasonably foreseeable time” because of unfairly traded imports from the subject countries. The ITC’s remand decision in the case will be announced Nov. 26, after which the plaintiffs (Russian urea producers Nevinnomysskiy Azot, Novomoskovsk Azot JSC, JSC MCC Eurochem, Kuybyshevazot JSC, JSC “Azot” Berezniki, and JSC “Azot” Kemerovo) and the defendant-interveners (urea producers Agrium U.S. Inc. and the Ad Hoc Committee of Domestic Nitrogen Producers, whose members include CF Industries Holdings Inc. and PCS Nitrogen Inc.) will have until Dec. 28 to respond. The ITC’s remand review, ordered by the CIT judge after an appeal by the Russian producer group, may incorporate new evidence in the case, or it may stick with the record already established in 2004/05 when the ITC solicited testimony and briefs from the foreign and domestic producer groups. While statistics show a decision reversal is rare when the CIT remands a case back to the ITC for clarification, the ITC now has two new judges that were not a part of the original sunset review determination.