The US Court of International Trade on Sept. 2 issued an order partially remanding the US Department of Commerce’s (DOC) final determination on countervailing duties (CVD) on phosphate imports from Russia. The Court cited calculation issues for the remand, specifically on benchmark natural gas prices and phosphate rock input issues. According to the Court, the DOC acknowledged one error in calculations in an August filing. DOC has until Nov. 1, 2022 to respond.
The Court sustained other findings by DOC that Russian natural gas supplier Rosneft was a government authority, DOC’s de facto specificity finding regarding gas, and utilization of a tier-three benchmark for gas.
Not content with duties imposed on imports of phosphate fertilizers from Morocco and Russia (GM Feb. 12, 2021), The Mosaic Co., Tampa, filed a pair of federal lawsuits arguing that the duties should have been higher and that DOC miscalculated the value of certain foreign government subsidies (GM May 14, 2021).
For Morocco’s OCP SA, DOC calculated a CVD rate of 19.97%. For Russia, the rate was 9.19% for PhosAgro, 47.05%for EuroChem Group, and 17.2% for other Russian companies.
Morocco’s OCP SA and Russia’s PhosAgro and EuroChem challenged the DOC duties in court filings on June 4, 2021 (GM June 11, 2021). OCP listed multiple factors, focusing on the US market, while PhosAgro mainly attacked DOC’s calculation of Russian natural gas costs and consumption. EuroChem said the DOC decision was not supported by substantial evidence and otherwise not in accordance with law.
Two separate cases, one regarding Russia and another Morocco, are working their way through the Court.