Mid Continent Nail Corp. v. United States

Commerce limited its use of an average-to-transactional pricing comparison method for detecting targeted dumping to sales it could specifically identify as targeted dumping, rather than applying it to all of an importer's sales, under what was called the Limiting Regulation. Before repealing that regulation, Commerce published a request for comment seeking general guidance on an appropriate test for targeted dumping and a proposed methodology, but never proposed repealing the Limiting Regulation itself. Commerce then withdrew the Limiting Regulation and applied the broader average-to-transactional method to all of Precision Fasteners' (defendant) sales in a dispute brought by Mid Continent Nail Corp. (plaintiff), finding a violation that would not have existed under the narrower, still-in-force Limiting Regulation. Precision appealed, arguing the Limiting Regulation was never properly repealed.