[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 27 (Thursday, February 8, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4763-4765]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-2692]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-428-801]


Ball Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts 
Thereof, From Germany; Preliminary Results of New Shipper Antidumping 
Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of Preliminary Results of New Shipper Antidumping Duty 
Administrative Review.

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SUMMARY: In response to a request by Roulements Miniatures SA (RMB), 
Biel, Switzerland, and its wholly owned subsidiary Miniaturkugellager 
GmbH (MKL), Germany, the Department of Commerce (the Department) is 
conducting a new shipper administrative review of the antidumping duty 
order on ball bearings (other than tapered roller bearings) and parts 
thereof (ball bearings) from Germany. This review covers MKL, a German 
manufacturer of ball bearings and exporter of this merchandise to the 
United States. The period of review (POR) is December 1, 1994 through 
May 31, 1995. We have preliminarily 

[[Page 4764]]
determined that MKL sold subject merchandise at not less than normal 
value (NV) during the POR. Interested parties are invited to comment on 
these preliminary results.

EFFECTIVE DATE: February 8, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas O. Barlow or Michael Rill, 
Office of Antidumping Compliance, Import Administration, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-
4733.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Applicable Statute and Regulations

    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the statute are 
references to the provisions effective January 1, 1995, the effective 
date of the amendments made to the Tariff Act of 1930 (the Act), by the 
Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). In addition, unless otherwise 
indicated, all citations to the Department's regulations are to the 
current regulations, as amended by the interim regulations published in 
the Federal Register on May 11, 1995, (60 FR 25130).

Background

    On May 31, 1995, the Department received a request from RMB and MKL 
for a new shipper review pursuant to section 751(a)(2)(B) of the Act 
and section 353.22(h) of the Department's interim regulations.
    Section 751(a)(2) of the Tariff Act and section 353.22(h) of the 
Department's regulations govern determinations of antidumping duties 
for new shippers. These provisions state that, if the Department 
receives a request for review from an exporter or producer of the 
subject merchandise stating that it did not export the merchandise to 
the United States during the period of investigation (POI) and that 
such exporter or producer is not affiliated with any exporter or 
producer who exported the subject merchandise during that period, the 
Department shall conduct a new shipper review to establish an 
individual weighted-average dumping margin for such exporter or 
producer, if the Department has not previously established such a 
margin for the exporter or producer. To establish these facts, the 
exporter or producer must include with its request, with appropriate 
certifications: (i) the date on which the merchandise was first 
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, or, if it cannot 
certify as to the date of first entry, the date on which it first 
shipped the merchandise for export to the United States; (ii) a list of 
the firms with which it is affiliated; and (iii) a statement from such 
exporter or producer, and from each affiliated firm, that it did not, 
under its current or a former name, export the merchandise during the 
POI.
    MKL's request was accompanied by information and certifications 
establishing the date on which MKL first shipped and entered subject 
merchandise, the names of MKL's affiliated parties, and statements from 
MKL and its affiliated parties that they did not, under any name, 
export the merchandise during the POI. Based on the above information, 
on June 14, 1995, the Department initiated this new shipper review of 
MKL (60 FR 32503). The Department is now conducting this review in 
accordance with section 751 of the Tariff Act and section 353.22 of its 
regulations.

Scope of the Review

    Imports covered by this review are shipments of ball bearings and 
parts thereof. These products include all antifriction bearings that 
employ balls as the rolling element. Imports of these products are 
classified under the following categories: antifriction balls, ball 
bearings with integral shafts, ball bearings (including radial ball 
bearings) and parts thereof, and housed or mounted ball bearing units 
and parts thereof.
    Imports of these products are classified under the following 
Harmonized Tariff Schedules (HTS) subheadings: 3926.90.45, 4016.93.00, 
4016.93.10, 4016.93.50, 6909.19.5010, 8431.20.00, 8431.39.0010, 
8482.10.10, 8482.10.50, 8482.80.00, 8482.91.00, 8482.99.05, 8482.99.10, 
8482.99.35, 8482.99.6590, 8482.99.70, 8483.20.40, 8483.20.80, 
8483.50.8040, 8483.50.90, 8483.90.20, 8483.90.30, 8483.90.70, 
8708.50.50, 8708.60.50, 8708.60.80, 8708.70.6060, 8708.70.8050, 
8708.93.30, 8708.93.5000, 8708.93.6000, 8708.93.75, 8708.99.06, 
8708.99.31, 8708.99.4960, 8708.99.50, 8708.99.5800, 8708.99.8080, 
8803.10.00, 8803.20.00, 8803.30.00, 8803.90.30, 8803.90.90.
    The size or precision grade of a bearing does not influence whether 
the bearing is covered by the order. For a further discussion of the 
scope of the order being reviewed, including recent scope 
determinations, see Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller 
Bearings) and Parts Thereof from France, et al.; Final Results of 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews, Partial Termination of 
Administrative Reviews, and Revocation in Part of Antidumping Duty 
Orders, 60 FR 10900 (February 28, 1995). The HTS item numbers are 
provided for convenience and Customs purposes. The written descriptions 
remain dispositive.
    The review covers one producer/exporter. The POR is December 1, 
1994 through May 31, 1995.

Constructed Export Price (CEP)

    The Department based its margin calculation on constructed export 
price (CEP) as defined in section 772(b) of the Tariff Act because the 
subject merchandise was first sold in the United States to a person not 
affiliated with MKL after importation, by RMB Ringwood Inc. (Ringwood), 
a seller affiliated with MKL.
    We based CEP on packed, ex-factory prices to unaffiliated 
purchasers in the United States. The Department made the following 
adjustments to the prices used to establish CEP, pursuant to section 
772(c) of the Tariff Act. The price was increased for packing and 
handling revenues pursuant to section 772(c)(1) and reduced for 
movement expenses (international freight, brokerage, U.S. duties, 
domestic inland freight and insurance) pursuant to section 772(c)(2). 
The price used to establish CEP was also reduced by an amount for the 
following expenses incurred in selling the subject merchandise in the 
United States pursuant to section 772(d)(1): commissions, credit, and 
inventory carrying costs and other indirect selling expenses incurred 
in the United States. Pursuant to section 772(d)(3), the price was 
further reduced by an amount for profit to arrive at the CEP.

Normal Value (NV)

    Based on a comparison of the aggregate quantity of home market and 
U.S. sales, and absent any information that a particular market 
situation in the exporting country does not permit a proper comparison, 
we determined that the quantity of foreign like product sold in the 
exporting country was sufficient to permit a proper comparison with the 
sales of the subject merchandise to the United States, pursuant to 
section 773(a)(1)(C) of the Tariff Act. Therefore, in accordance with 
section 773(a)(1)(B) of the Tariff Act, we based NV on the price at 
which the foreign like product was first sold for consumption in the 
exporting country.
    Pursuant to section 777A(d)(2), we compared the CEPs of individual 
transactions to the monthly weighted-average price of sales of the 
foreign like product. We compared CEP sales to sales in the home market 
of identical merchandise.
    We based NV on packed, ex-factory prices to unaffiliated purchasers 
in the home market. We made adjustments, 

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where applicable, in accordance with section 773(a)(6) of the Tariff 
Act. In order to adjust for differences in packing between the two 
markets, we increased home market price by U.S. packing costs and 
reduced it by home market packing costs. Prices were reported net of 
value added taxes (VAT) and, therefore, no deduction for VAT was 
necessary. Where applicable, we made adjustments to home market price 
for early payment discounts. To adjust for differences in circumstances 
of sale between the home market and the United States, we reduced home 
market price by an amount for home market credit and royalty expenses 
and increased it by an amount for royalties on U.S. sales paid by MKL. 
No other adjustments were made.

Preliminary Results of the Review

    As a result of our comparison of CEP and NV, we preliminarily 
determine that the following weighted-average dumping margin exists:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Manufacturer/Exporter                  Period           Margin 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MKL....................................      12/01/94-5/31/95       0.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Parties to the proceeding may request disclosure within five days 
of the date of publication of this notice. Any interested party may 
request a hearing within 10 days of publication. Any hearing, if 
requested, will be held 34 days after the date of publication, or the 
first workday thereafter. Case briefs and/or written comments from 
interested parties may be submitted not later than 20 days after the 
date of publication. Rebuttal briefs and rebuttals to written comments, 
limited to issues raised in the case briefs and comments, may be filed 
not later than 27 days after the date of publication. Parties who 
submit argument in this proceeding are requested to submit with the 
argument (1) a statement of the issue and (2) a brief summary of the 
argument. The Department will issue the final results of the new 
shipper administrative review, including the results of its analysis of 
issues raised in any such written comments or at a hearing, within 90 
days of issuance of these preliminary results.
    Upon completion of this new shipper review, the Department will 
issue appraisement instructions directly to the Customs Service. The 
results of this review shall be the basis for the assessment of 
antidumping duties on entries of merchandise covered by the 
determination and for future deposits of estimated duties.
    Furthermore, upon completion of this review, the posting of a bond 
or security in lieu of a cash deposit, pursuant to section 
751(a)(2)(B)(iii) of the Tariff Act and section 353.22(h)(4) of the 
Department's regulations, will no longer be permitted and, should the 
final results yield a margin of dumping, a cash deposit will be 
required for each entry of the merchandise. The following deposit 
requirements will be effective upon publication of the final results of 
this new shipper antidumping duty administrative review for all 
shipments of ball bearings from Germany, entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date, as 
provided by section 751(a)(1) of the Tariff Act: (1) the cash deposit 
rate for the reviewed company will be that established in the final 
results of this new shipper administrative review; (2) for exporters 
not covered in this review, but covered in previous reviews or the 
original less-than-fair-value (LTFV) investigation, the cash deposit 
rate will continue to be the company-specific rate published for the 
most recent period; (3) if the exporter is not a firm covered in this 
review, previous reviews, or the original LTFV investigation, but the 
manufacturer is, the cash deposit rate will be that established for the 
most recent period for the manufacturer of the merchandise; and (4) the 
cash deposit rate for all other manufacturers or exporters will 
continue to be 68.89 percent, the ``All Others'' rate made effective by 
the final results of review published on July 26, 1993 (see Final 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews and Revocation in 
Part of an Antidumping Duty Order, 58 FR 39729 (July 26, 1993)). This 
rate is the ``All Others'' rate from the LTFV investigation.
    These requirements, when imposed, shall remain in effect until 
publication of the final results of the next administrative review.
    This notice serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of their 
responsibility under 19 CFR 353.26 to file a certificate regarding the 
reimbursement of antidumping duties prior to liquidation of the 
relevant entries during this review period. Failure to comply with this 
requirement could result in the Secretary's presumption that 
reimbursement of antidumping duties occurred and the subsequent 
assessment of double antidumping duties.
    This new shipper administrative review and notice are in accordance 
with section 751(a)(2)(B) of the Tariff Act (19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(2)(B)) 
and 19 CFR 353.22(h).

    Dated: January 31, 1996.
Susan G. Esserman,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-2692 Filed 2-7-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P