Case Background

On February 17, 2023, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Council (GECEX) issued the final ruling of anti-dumping sunset review of agricultural tires originated from China. The team of international trade and compliance of Beijing Chance Bridge Law Firm represented Guizhou Tire Company Limited (GTC) to respond to the case and achieved that the anti-dumping duty of GTC was reduced from $858.34/ton (the result of the original investigation) to $512.97/ton, with a downward adjustment by $512.97/ton. GTC is the company which achieved the highest anti-dumping duty reduction in this case (as high as 60%) , and achieves the second lowest anti-dumping duty in this sunset review.

Defense Strategy Setting

I. Advocating the "low tax principle"

In this case, the Brazilian investigation agency did not treat China’s agricultural tire sector as being of market economy, so it adopted the United States as a surrogate country, and used the production cost data of American companies, Titan International, Inc’s period expenses and profit rate data to construct the normal value. Due to the above-mentioned practices, the normal value is abnormally high and the dumping margin is relatively high, which puts all Chinese responding enterprises at a disadvantage.

In view of this unfavorable situation, the team of Beijing Chance Bridge Law Firm, together with the Brazilian lawyer team, defended against the damage to Brazil's domestic industry, and advocated the "low tax principle" to determine the final anti-dumping tax rate of GTC. In the end, the Brazilian investigation agency adopted our defense opinion, and under relatively unfavorable circumstances, we achieved to obtain a lower tax rate for GTC to the greatest extent.

II. Familiarizing with Brazilian Anti-Dumping Investigation Procedures

To represent an enterprise in an anti-dumping investigation, a team of lawyers needs to be familiar with the country's anti-dumping investigation procedures and ensure that the enterprise obtains a cooperative status in the investigation. In this sunset review, there were three Chinese enterprises participating in the investigation, but one of which was regarded as a "non-cooperative enterprise" due to its failure to submit written verification materials, which resulted in its failure to obtain the cooperative tariff rate and the failure of its previous efforts.

In this case, Chance Bridge Law Firm assisted GTC to set up a correct strategy, formulated a practicable plan at the very beginning of the investigation, and provided all-round guidance during the investigation process to ensure that the enterprise could provide the relevant evidence and information on time according to the requirements of the investigating authority, so as to ensure GTC's cooperative status throughout the investigation.

III. Enterprise’s active cooperation with the lawsuit

Throughout the anti-dumping investigation, GTC actively cooperated with the lawyers and assisted them in gaining an in-depth understanding of the enterprise's basic structure, product characteristics, sales and trading patterns, and cost accounting principles. With the coordination and cooperation of GTC, the lawyers were able to submit the questionnaires on time and meet the procedural requirements of the Brazilian anti-dumping investigation as well as ensuring the quality of the responses.

Responding to Anti-dumping Investigations is a business strategy

In the face of anti-dumping investigation procedures initiated by foreign investigative authorities, enterprises that respond negatively or ignore the procedures may face higher punitive duty rates and be forced to give up overseas markets. However, if enterprises actively face the situation and look for a suitable team of lawyers to formulate a suitable responding strategy, it will help to obtain an advantageous anti-dumping duty rate, which will help to further expand the overseas market, form favorable business publicity, and obtain the business interests therein.

The results of the Brazilian anti-dumping sunset review procedures would maintain the original anti-dumping measures, or adjust the existing anti-dumping measures. In this case, GTC seized the advantage of the investigation procedure and significantly reduced its anti-dumping duty in the original investigation by actively responding to the complaint, laying a favorable foundation for its expansion into the Brazilian market.