Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations

ITR is the leading international trade remedies consulting firm, having assisted over 40 law firms and their clients, with U.S., European, Chinese, Mexican and Brazilian antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and reviews. Based on our extensive knowledge of U.S. and foreign government laws, regulations and practices, we have developed systematic, proven methodologies for providing assistance in trade remedies cases before U.S. and foreign governmental agencies. ITR's experts can help counsel and their clients achieve the best results possible with reporting methodologies that are acceptable and verifiable by antidumping authorities.

Antidumping Duty Proceedings

Engagements on Behalf of Respondents
Our expert accounting and computer consultants assist in developing transaction-specific sales and product-specific cost data for submission to Commerce, the European Commission or other relevant governmental agencies in antidumping investigations and reviews. Often, the requisite data does not exist in the form accepted by the authority. ITR provides support throughout all phases of the submission process and works closely with counsel and their clients to ensure that responses are submitted in the proper form and within the stringent deadlines to meet the agency's reporting requirements. Our services include:

• Planning and setting up project teams, including coordinating multiple company sites.
• Providing technical assistance in accounting, information systems, and financial and economic analyses both from our in-house computing facilities and onsite.
• Identifying alternative means of quantifying price adjustments and production costs that allow data to be presented in the most favorable manner within the agency's practice and regulations.
• Reconciling sales and cost data to the company's financial statements.
• Preparing for successful verification of the data.
• Providing continued post-submission support.
• Defining and implementing price monitoring systems to mitigate clients' duties in future proceedings.

ITR works with counsel and the respondent company to prepare the financial and cost reconciliations required by the relevant governmental agency. Using analytical programming, coupled with our expertise, we are able to respond quickly and provide in-depth analysis.

Engagements on Behalf of Petitioners
ITR's extensive experience in antidumping cases and our expert analytical skills enable us to assist law firms as counsel to petitioners. We work directly with the petitioner's and respondent's confidential data at our secure in-house computing facility to compile sales and cost data for the preparation of petitions, and in analyzing the data submitted by respondent during the course of an investigation.

In assisting counsel to petitioners, ITR can:

• Prepare antidumping and countervailing duty analyses in support of a petition.
• Collect and analyze cost of production and sales data to support an allegation of below-cost sales in petitions.
• Analyze responses submitted by the respondents to identify computational errors and check for internal consistency.
• Analyze sales and cost adjustment factors for compliance with regulations and comparison of narrative responses to the data submitted to the government electronically.
• Develop alternative product matching methodologies, level of trade comparisons, and sales and cost adjustment factors.
• Calculate margins under different scenarios.

Margin Analysis
An important service ITR provides for both petitioners and respondents is analysis and quantification of dumping margins under various assumptions and scenarios. Our experts have developed computer programs that can be tailored to the specific facts of each proceeding, allowing us to analyze respondents' data accurately and quickly, and allowing counsel and their clients to more fully understand the factors that drive potential antidumping liability.

These programs have proven extremely effective in analyzing the sensitivity of margins to alternative product matching, price adjustment, and product costing methodologies. They also can be used to identify the specific cause of any dumping margin (e.g., the pricing of specific products in the foreign or domestic market, movement charges, selling expenses or production costs). This analysis is critical in ensuring the most effective representation during an investigation. In addition, we assist in developing respondents' strategic plans for managing dumping margins.

For both respondents and petitioners, we review the government agency's margin calculations to identify clerical programming errors and verify that the appropriate methodology has been used. The information is used to assist in the preparation of briefs and comments.

Margin Monitoring and Target Pricing
Many companies are forced to operate under current or potential antidumping constraints. ITR works with law firms and their clients to develop strategies for managing antidumping duty liability. Such strategies are critical for companies already covered by an antidumping order, and can be equally important for companies not yet involved in dumping actions. We can assess the potential dumping duty liability, communicate this information to management, and assist in developing optimal strategies for managing the liability.

Countervailing Duty Proceedings

As with antidumping cases, ITR assists law firms and their clients in the development of the overall submission methodology, and the preparation and review of narrative responses in countervailing duty investigations by Commerce or foreign governmental agencies. We provide support throughout all phases of the process, including preparing for verification and actively participating in the verification.

Using our accounting, financial, and economic analytic skills and extensive foreign trade experience, ITR assists law firms in determining whether subsidies that foreign governments give to exports are countervailable. We provide a detailed analysis of a company's credit and equity worthiness related to grants, equity infusions, loans and loan guarantees. We also review the government agency's calculations for accuracy.

Injury Proceedings

ITR has a comprehensive understanding of USITC's investigative process through our antidumping work, as well as the injury processes for other trade authorities. Our expert consultants combine their economic and industry data analysis and presentation skills with their familiarity of the operating and financial characteristics of numerous industries to assist counsel in developing strategies for successful participation in the proceeding, including pre-hearing briefs, hearing testimony and post-hearing briefs. The scope of our services include:

• Compilation of data submitted by parties in response to questionnaires by the authority.
• Economic and industry data analysis.
• Collection, analysis and presentation of industry economics and operating data for use in the preparation of petitions and briefs.
• Analysis of the validity of injury, threat and causation claims and, potentially, suggesting alternative causes of injury.
• Analysis of business cycle data and industry-specific conditions of competition.
• Analysis of injury and causation data using the analytical framework employed by individual commissioners.
• Analysis and presentation of economic data for briefs and hearing testimony.