Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Committee v. United States, 2014 Ct. Intl. Trade LEXIS 58

This case challenges Commerce's sixth administrative review final results for antidumping duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from Vietnam; AHSTAC sued to contest Commerce's normal-value calculations.
Because Vietnam is treated as a non-market economy (NME), Commerce used a market-economy surrogate country to value factors of production (FOPs) and construct normal value.
Commerce placed India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh on its potential-surrogates list (each found economically comparable and significant producers) and selected Bangladesh as the primary surrogate based on superior FOP data quality.
AHSTAC argued Commerce improperly chose Bangladesh (over the Philippines and India) by discounting GNI proximity and that Commerce unreasonably applied its new single-surrogate New Labor Rate Policy to value labor.
The New Labor Rate Policy (issued in 2011) shifted Commerce from regression-based multi-country wage estimation to using FOP data from a single primary surrogate for all inputs, including labor, unless aberrational.
The Court reviewed Commerce’s determinations under the substantial-evidence standard and affirmed Commerce’s surrogate choice and labor valuation as reasonable on the record.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Surrogate-country selection for valuing FOPs	AHSTAC: Commerce unreasonably selected Bangladesh over Philippines/India by ignoring GNI proximity and over-weighting small data-quality differences.	Commerce: It considered GNI proximity but reasonably concluded Bangladesh's superior, product-specific, contemporaneous FOP data outweighed closer GNI of other countries.	Court: Affirmed — Commerce considered GNI and reasonably prioritized data quality; selection supported by substantial evidence.
Valuation of labor wage rate under New Labor Rate Policy	AHSTAC: Commerce failed to explain departure from prior view that labor required special regression-based treatment; using a single surrogate likely understates labor due to GNI gap.	Commerce: Applied its lawful New Labor Rate Policy and reasonably weighed likelihood of wage understatement against superior overall FOP data from Bangladesh; wage figures were not aberrational.	Court: Affirmed — New Labor Rate Policy reasonably applied; no record evidence showing Bangladeshi wage data were aberrational or that Commerce unreasonably applied its policy.

SKF USA, Inc. v. United States, 537 F.3d 1373 (Fed. Cir.) (defines substantial evidence standard)
Consol. Edison Co. v. NLRB, 305 U.S. 197 (U.S.) (classic statement of substantial-evidence)
Nippon Steel Corp. v. United States, 458 F.3d 1345 (Fed. Cir.) (application of substantial-evidence review)
Dorbest Ltd. v. United States, 604 F.3d 1363 (Fed. Cir.) (limits on regression-based wage methodology)
Ad Hoc Shrimp Trade Action Comm. v. United States, 882 F. Supp. 2d 1366 (CIT) (prior remand on surrogate selection issues)
Fujian Lianfu Forestry Co. v. United States, 638 F. Supp. 2d 1325 (CIT) (discussion of potential-surrogate selection process)
Camau Frozen Seafood Processing Imp. Exp. Corp. v. United States, 929 F. Supp. 2d 1352 (CIT) (upholding New Labor Rate Policy application in related review)