U.S. Court of International Trade Ruling Raises Questions on "Sunset" Reviews
 
May 14, 2002
 

In an opinion issued in Usinor Industeel et. al. v. United States, the U.S. Court of International Trade (Court) questioned the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (USITC) interpretation of the “likely” standard used in a sunset review to determine the likelihood of European steel imports leading to continued dumping injury to domestic producers.  The European producers had argued that the USITC interpreted the word “likely” to mean “possible.”  The Court said that the USITC failed to show that it had interpreted the term “likely” according to its common meaning of  “probable.”  The Court ordered the USITC to issue a new determination that applied this common meaning of the term “likely” by July 1, 2002.  The ruling could set a new standard for USITC sunset reviews that would raise the bar in allowing the continuation of antidumping and countervailing orders beyond their normal five-year life span, and may force the USITC to review past sunset determinations based on the questionable “likely”standard.