Industry Support
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For industry support purposes, the petition must contain the names and addresses of the
producers on behalf of which the petitioner is filing in addition to other producers in the U.S. industry.
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Additionally, the petition must include information relating to the degree of industry
support for the petition, including: (i) the total volume and value of U.S. production of
the domestic like product, regardless of destination; and (ii) the volume and value of U.S.
production of the domestic like product produced by the petitioner and each domestic
producer identified, regardless of sales destination.
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The time period examined for industry support purposes does not have to be the same as
the Period of Investigation (POI).
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The Department must determine that the petition is filed by an interested party as defined
under section 771(9) (C), (D), (E), (F) or (G) of the Act and has the support of the industry
producing or selling the domestic like product in the United States.
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The Department normally determines the existence of industry support based on the
volume or value of production. In most instances, the Department bases this determination on volume.
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The Department will determine that a petition has sufficient industry support if it meets
two statutory criteria:
(i) Under section 732(c)(4)(A)(I) of the Act, "the domestic producers or workers who
support the petition" must "account for at least 25 percent of the total production
of the domestic like product" (hereinafter referred to as the "25-percent test").
(ii) Under section 732(c)(4)(A)(ii) of the Act, "the domestic producers or workers
who support the petition" must "account for more than 50 percent of the
production of the domestic like product produced by that portion of the industry
expressing support for or opposition to the petition" (hereinafter referred to as the
"50-percent test").
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The ratio for assessing whether the petitioner satisfies the 25-percent test is derived by
dividing the total production volume of all petitioners and those who support the petition
by total U.S. production volume.
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The ratio for assessing whether the petitioner satisfies the 50-percent test is calculated by
dividing the sum total production of those in the industry who are petitioning and those who support the petition
by the sum total production of those who support and those who oppose the petition.
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Under section 732(c)(4)(B)(I) of the Act, the Department must disregard opposing
positions of U.S. producers who are related to foreign producers, unless such domestic
producers demonstrate that their interests as domestic producers would be adversely
affected by the imposition of an antidumping duty order.
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Under section 732(c)(4)(B)(ii) of the Act, the Department may also disregard the views of
domestic producers who are importers of the subject merchandise and domestic producers
who are related to such importers, see section 351.203.(e)(4)(I) of the Department’s
regulations. In evaluating whether to disregard such producers, the Department must
consider whether "these domestic companies are so wed to allegedly dumped imports that
their interests would run counter to the imposition of antidumping duties."
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In making this determination, the Department may consider import levels and percentage
of ownership common to other members of the domestic industry. However, as the
Statement of Administrative Action ("SAA") makes plain, the Department "will not
apply a bright line test to determine whether a producer who is an importer of the subject
merchandise . . . should be excluded from the domestic industry."
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If the petition does not establish support of domestic producers or workers accounting for
more than 50 percent of the total production of the domestic like product the Department
must, pursuant to section 732(c)(4)(D) of the Act and section 351.203(b)(2) of the
Department’s regulations, poll or otherwise determine industry support.
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Basically, polling consists of surveying the entire U.S. industry with the purpose of
discovering its express position vis-a-vis the petition. When the industry in question only
consists of a small number of producers, polling is an effective way to determine industry
support.
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When the domestic industry is comprised of a large number of producers, the Department
may "rely on other information" or use "any statistically valid sampling method" to
determine industry support.
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In the case of CVD petitions, if the government of the country subject to the petition is a
WTO member, that government has the right to request consultations with the Department.
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