Barcode : 4326250-02 A-533-889 REV - Admin Review 12 / 13 / 19 - 5 / 31 / 21
As the CAFC explained in Dongtai Honey , the U . S . Supreme Court has established that agencies should be free to fashion their own rules of procedure and , by rejecting the untimely submissions and extension requests in that case by finding that the respondent failed to show good cause under 19 CFR 351.302 ( b ), Commerce reasonably determined that the respondent ’ s untimely submissions should be rejected and removed from the record . 95 Moreover , the CAFC noted that a respondent ’ s due process rights are not violated when the respondent had notice of the deadline and an opportunity to reply and , by failing to request an extension in advance of the deadline and failing to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances , Commerce was within is discretion to reject the submission . 96 In this case , as discussed above , Antique Group was well aware of the deadline ahead of time and had more than sufficient time to request an extension , had it believed that it would have been unable to meet the specified deadline . Just as in Dongtai Honey , Antique Group ’ s explanations after the late submission and the arguments presented in the case briefs by the various parties fail to provide any justification for providing an ex post facto extension that would make the submission timely or for permitting Antique Group to re-submit the rejected submission .
Finally , similar to this case , in Dongtai Honey , the CAFC rejected arguments that Commerce should accept the untimely submission in that case where there were four months left to the preliminary results because it would not prejudice the procedure , noting that Commerce explained why so much time was required to analyze the information . In the instant case , the deadline for the rejected supplemental questionnaire response was less than two months before the previously fully extended preliminary results deadline . Given the breadth of the questions covered by the Antique Group Second Supplemental Questionnaire , 97 and the possibility that yet additional information would need to be collected once the responses were reviewed , as well as the fact that preparation of determinations in administrative reviews requires significant time and effort on the part of Commerce , we note that any time that Commerce lost because the submission was untimely did , in fact , make our ability to conduct our preliminary analysis that much more difficult . Antique Group is a complex group of companies with intertwined operations , and evaluating the supplemental responses would have required significant time and effort on the part of Commerce prior to being able to make preliminary decisions in the case . As such , contrary to what parties argue , by filing the response late , Antique Group did prejudice the proceeding , given the crucial time remaining before the Preliminary Results . Moreover , more generally , Commerce establishes deadlines so that it can conduct this administrative review ( and its numerous other trade remedy proceedings ) in an efficient manner within its statutory and regulatory deadlines . Therefore , it is critical that parties file documents by the established deadline or timely request an extension of such a deadline . Untimely filings and untimely extension requests hinder the efficient and timely conduct of our proceedings and lead Commerce to spend additional time and resources to address such untimely filings and requests . Although the burden associated with a single late-filed questionnaire response may be perceived as minimal , that burden is not minimal when aggregated across all proceedings . 98
95
See Dongtai Honey , 777 F . 3d at 1351-1352 .
96
Id ., 777 F . 3d at 1352-53 .
97
See Commerce ’ s Letter , “ Second Supplemental Questionnaire ,” dated April 20 , 2022 ( Antique Group Second Supplemental Questionnaire ).
98
See Extension of Time Limits , 78 FR at 57790 (“ These modifications will diminish the cumulative impact of last-
20 Filed By : David Lindgren , Filed Date : 1 / 3 / 23 1:27 PM , Submission Status : Approved