Cathedral Candle Co. v. U.S. Intern. Trade Com'n
| Decision Date | 09 March 2005 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-1083.,04-1083. |
| Citation | 400 F.3d 1352 |
| Parties | CATHEDRAL CANDLE COMPANY and The A.I. Root Company, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION and Deanna Tanner Okun, Chairman, United States International Trade Commission, Defendants-Appellees, and Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and Robert C. Bonner, Commissioner, Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Federal Circuit |
Steven M. Schneebaum, Patton Boggs LLP, of Washington, DC, argued for plaintiffs-appellants. With him on the brief was Michael J. Schaengold.
Michael Diehl, Attorney-Advisor, Office of the General Counsel, United States International Trade Commission, of Washington, DC, argued for defendants-appellees United States International Trade Commission, et al. On the brief were James M. Lyons, Acting General Counsel; Neal J. Reynolds, Acting Assistant General Counsel for Litigation; and Karen Veninga Driscoll, Attorney. Of counsel was Mark B. Rees, Attorney.
David Silverbrand, Attorney, Commercial Litigation Branch, Civil Division, United States Department of Justice, of Washington, DC, argued for defendants-appellees Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, et al. On the brief were Peter D. Keisler, Assistant Attorney General; David M. Cohen, Director; Jeanne E. Davidson, Deputy Director; and Paul D. Kovac, Trial Attorney. Of counsel on the brief was Charles R. Steuart, Attorney, Office of Chief Counsel, United States Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, of Washington, DC.
Before LOURIE, BRYSON, and DYK, Circuit Judges.
Appellants Cathedral Candle Company ("Cathedral") and The A.I. Root Company ("Root") filed this action in the Court of International Trade seeking to compel the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection ("Customs") to distribute payments to them pursuant to the Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, Pub.L. No. 106-387, § 1(a) [tit. X, § 1003(a)], 114 Stat. 1549, 1549A-72 (2000), which is known as the Byrd Amendment. Cathedral and Root applied for Byrd Amendment distributions from funds derived from antidumping duties collected on petroleum wax candles imported from the People's Republic of China in the years 2000 and 2001. Customs determined that Cathedral and Root were ineligible for those distributions because the two companies had not made timely requests for payment. The Court of International Trade sustained Customs' ruling. We affirm.
In 1985, the National Candle Association filed an antidumping petition alleging that the importation of petroleum wax candles from China was causing and threatening to cause material injury to the domestic candle industry. The Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission initiated an investigation, in the course of which the Commission sent questionnaires to domestic producers of candles. Both Cathedral and Root received and responded to the questionnaires, and both indicated their support of the petition. The questionnaires were marked "Business Confidential" on the top of each page, and the "General Information and Instructions" portion of the questionnaires explained that the commercial and financial information furnished in response to the questionnaires would be treated as confidential. Following the investigation, Commerce issued an antidumping order covering Chinese candle imports. That antidumping order has remained in effect since that time.
The Byrd Amendment, enacted in late 2000, requires Customs annually to distribute funds collected pursuant to antidumping and countervailing duty orders to certified "affected domestic producers." 19 U.S.C. § 1675c. The statute defines an affected domestic producer as a party that was a petitioner or supporter of an antidumping or countervailing duty petition and that continues to produce the product that was the subject of the resulting order. Id. § 1675c(b)(1). The statute assigns to the International Trade Commission the responsibility to compile a list that includes petitioners and "persons that indicate support of the petition by letter or through questionnaire response." Id. § 1675c(d)(1). The Commission is directed to forward that list to Customs, which in turn is required to publish in the Federal Register, at least 30 days before a distribution of funds, a notice of intention to distribute funds to the parties on the Commission's list. Id. The statute requires Customs next to request a certification from each potentially eligible affected domestic producer in which the producer represents that it desires to receive a distribution, that it is eligible for a distribution, and that it has qualifying expenditures for which it has not previously received a distribution. Id. § 1675c(d)(2). The funds, which come from assessed duties received in the preceding fiscal year, are distributed to affected domestic producers who satisfy particular statutory criteria. Id. § 1675c(d)(3); See generally Candle Corp. of Am. v. U.S. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 374 F.3d 1087, 1089-90 (Fed.Cir.2004). The distribution of funds from duties assessed each fiscal year must be distributed not later than 60 days after the end of that fiscal year. 19 U.S.C. § 1675c(c).
On December 29, 2000, the Commission sent Customs a list that included the names of the petitioners and petition supporters for each pending antidumping and countervailing duty order that was in effect as of January 1, 1999, except for those orders that were subsequently revoked. Along with the list, the Commission sent a letter to Customs in which the Commission chairman stated that because section 777 of the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 U.S.C. § 1677f, "prohibits the Commission from disclosing business proprietary information, with certain specifically enumerated exceptions not applicable here, the list only includes those persons referenced by section 754(d)(1) [19 U.S.C. § 1675c(d)(1)] that indicated public support for the petition." Thus, parties such as Cathedral and Root that had stated their support for a petition under a promise of confidentiality and had not waived confidentiality as to the information were not included on the Commission's list. Customs published the Commission's list and the accompanying letter from the Commission chairman on its website in early 2001.
In June 2001, Customs published a notice in the Federal Register of its proposed rules for distributing funds under the Byrd Amendment. 66 Fed.Reg. 33,920 (June 26, 2001). That publication contained a notification that Customs had received the initial list of affected domestic producers from the Commission; a statement that the resolution of any dispute regarding the list of affected domestic producers in any given case was the responsibility of the Commission, not Customs; a reference to the Customs website address where the Commission list could be found; and a statement that continued updates to the list would be processed as necessary. Id. at 33,920-21.
In August 2001, Customs published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed distribution of Byrd Amendment funds for 2001 along with an updated list of affected domestic producers. 66 Fed.Reg. 40,782 (Aug. 3, 2001). That publication put potential distribution recipients on notice that they must file their certifications of eligibility by a specific date in order to receive distributions for fiscal year 2001. A deadline of October 2, 2001, was set for filing certifications for the 2001 distributions. Neither Cathedral nor Root was on the August 2001 list, and neither filed a certification with Customs for a distribution of Byrd Amendment funds for fiscal year 2001. Neither received a distribution for that year.
In July of 2002, Customs published in the Federal Register an announcement of its intention to distribute offsets for fiscal year 2002. 67 Fed.Reg. 44,722 (July 3, 2002). That publication included an updated list of affected domestic producers. The new list included seven domestic candle producers, but not Cathedral and Root. Customs announced that written certifications to obtain a distribution would have to be received by September 3, 2002.
After the September 2002 deadline passed, Cathedral and Root discovered from informal contacts within the candle industry that they might be eligible for Byrd Amendment distributions. They sent letters to the Commission waiving confidentiality with respect to their support of the antidumping petition and requesting that they be added to the Commission's list of affected domestic producers. When it received the letters, the Commission added Root and Cathedral to the list and forwarded the new information to Customs. Cathedral and Root then submitted certifications to Customs seeking Byrd Amendment distributions for 2002. Customs rejected their certifications as untimely because the September 3 deadline had already passed. Accordingly, Cathedral and Root received no Byrd Amendment distributions for fiscal year 2002. However, they were included on the list of affected domestic producers for 2003, and they received distributions for that year.
Cathedral and Root filed this action in the Court of International Trade, contending that the Commission and Customs had wrongfully deprived them of their right to Byrd Amendment distributions for 2001 and 2002. The plaintiffs moved for judgment on the agency record. For reasons set forth in a detailed opinion, the trial court denied the plaintiffs' motion and entered judgment for the defendants.
The trial court held that Customs had properly dismissed the certifications as untimely. The court noted that Cathedral and Root had ample notice of the deadline for filing certifications of eligibility for distributions, giving them time to discover that they were not on the list of affected domestic producers and to seek an amendment to the list before the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Angiotech Pharm. Inc. v. Lee
..."general statements" about Skidmore deference by articulating three criteria that, if present, require deference.16 See Cathedral Candle , 400 F.3d at 1366. Specifically, (i) the agency must have "conducted a careful analysis of the statutory issue," (ii) the agency's position must be "cons......
-
Wolfchild v. United States
...[but] a conflict [between the two statutes] is a minimum requirement.") (citations omitted); Cathedral Candle Co. v. United States Int'l Trade Comm'n, 400 F.3d 1352, 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2005) ("The Supreme Court has frequently explained that repeals by implication are not favored, and it has in......
-
Haas v. Peake
...using the traditional tools of statutory interpretation. Chevron, 467 U.S. at 842-43, 104 S.Ct. 2778; Cathedral Candle Co. v. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 400 F.3d 1352, 1362 (Fed. Cir.2005). The relevant portion of section 1116(a)(1)(A) provides that for a veteran who suffers from one of several sp......
-
Zhang v. United States
...absent a clearly expressed congressional intention to the contrary, to regard each as effective,’ ” Cathedral Candle Co. v. U.S. Int'l Trade Comm'n, 400 F.3d 1352, 1365 (Fed.Cir.2005) (quoting Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co., 467 U.S. 986, 1018, 104 S.Ct. 2862, 81 L.Ed.2d 815 (1984)). Because A......
-
The debate over deference in the ERISA setting - judicial review of decisions by conflicted fiduciaries.
...of the regulation, the agency is particularly well suited to speak to its original intent. See Cathedral Candle Co. v. United States ITC, 400 F.3d 1352, 1363-64 (Fed. Cir. 2005). In Cathedral Candle, the court further noted [I]t is well settled that an agency's interpretation of its own reg......