Anti-dumping product scope requires independent assessment; specialty PVC suspension resins for CPVC were excluded from the investigation.

A writ petition was held maintainable to challenge preliminary findings and an addendum issued during an anti-dumping investigation because the statutory appeal under Section 9C of the Customs Tariff Act applies to a final determination or review, not to an ongoing preliminary product-scope dispute. The Court also held that specialty grade PVC suspension resins imported for CPVC manufacture were to be excluded from the product under consideration, since the record did not show proper independent examination of their inclusion, domestic production of the same grades, or sufficient technical and commercial substitutability for the relevant end use. The product scope had to be fixed on a proper assessment at the initiation stage.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether a writ petition was maintainable to challenge the preliminary findings and addendum issued in the anti-dumping investigation; (ii) Whether specialty grade PVC suspension resins imported for manufacture of CPVC were liable to be excluded from the product under consideration.

Issue (i): Whether a writ petition was maintainable to challenge the preliminary findings and addendum issued in the anti-dumping investigation.

Analysis: The challenge was directed against preliminary findings and the subsequent addendum, while the statutory appeal under Section 9C of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975 lies against an order of determination or review regarding the existence, degree and effect of dumping. The preliminary stage was held not to furnish an effective alternative appellate remedy, and judicial review was found maintainable where the grievance concerned the legality of the product scope determination in the ongoing investigation.

Conclusion: The writ petition was maintainable.

Issue (ii): Whether specialty grade PVC suspension resins imported for manufacture of CPVC were liable to be excluded from the product under consideration.

Analysis: The scope of the product under consideration had to be fixed at the initiation stage and examined with reference to the definition of like article, technical and commercial substitutability, and the investigative standards governing trade remedy inquiries. The record did not establish that the specialty grades imported by the petitioners were produced by the domestic industry or that they were shown, on a proper and independent inquiry, to be like articles suitable for the same end use. The addendum was found to have relied substantially on material furnished by the domestic industry without sufficient independent examination of the petitioners' exclusion request.

Conclusion: The specialty grade PVC suspension resins were directed to be excluded from the product under consideration in the further investigation.

Final Conclusion: The petition succeeded in part, and the impugned product-scope determination was interfered with to the extent necessary to exclude the petitioners' specialty grades from the continuing anti-dumping inquiry.

Ratio Decidendi: In an anti-dumping investigation, the product under consideration and the like article must be identified on a proper and independent assessment at the initiation stage, and a grade cannot be treated as covered merely because it is broadly similar or capable of other uses if the record does not establish its production by the domestic industry or its technical and commercial substitutability for the relevant end use.

---