[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 118 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30853-30854]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-15464]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
[A-427-098]


Anhydrous Sodium Metasilicate From France; Preliminary Results of 
Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of preliminary results of antidumping duty 
administrative review.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an 
administrative review of the antidumping duty order on anhydrous sodium 
metasilicate (ASM) from France in response to a request by the 
petitioner, the PQ Corporation. This review covers Rhone Poulenc Chime 
de Base (Rhone Poulenc), a manufacturer/exporter of ASM, and shipments 
of this merchandise to the United States during the period from January 
1, 1995 through December 31, 1995.
    Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary 
results. Parties who submit argument are requested to submit with each 
argument (1) a statement of the issue and (2) a brief summary of the 
argument.

EFFECTIVE DATE: June 18, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mark Ross or Richard Rimlinger, Office 
of Antidumping Compliance, Import Administration, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230; telephone (202) 482-
4733.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Applicable Statute

    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

    The Department published in the Federal Register on January 26, 
1996 (61 FR 2488) a ``Notice of Opportunity to Request Administrative 
Review'' of the antidumping duty order on ASM from France (46 FR 1667, 
January 7, 1981). On January 29, 1996, the petitioner requested an 
administrative review of Rhone Poulenc, a manufacturer/exporter of ASM. 
The Department initiated the review on February 20, 1996 (61 FR 6347). 
The Department is now conducting this review in accordance with section 
751 of the Act.

Scope of the Review

    Imports covered by the review are shipments of ASM, a crystallized 
silicate (Na2 SiO3) which is alkaline and readily soluble in 
water. Applications include waste paper de-inking, ore-flotation, 
bleach stabilization, clay processing, medium or heavy duty cleaning, 
and compounding into other detergent formulations. This merchandise is 
classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedules (HTS) item numbers 
2839.11.00 and 2839.19.00. The HTS item numbers are provided for 
convenience and Customs purposes. The written description remains 
dispositive.

Use of Facts Otherwise Available

    The Department preliminarily determines, in accordance with section 
776(a) of the Act, that the use of facts available is appropriate for 
Rhone Poulenc because it did not respond to the antidumping 
questionnaire. The Department sent Rhone Poulenc a questionnaire on 
February 28, 1996 with a deadline of April 25, 1996 for providing 
information necessary to conduct a review of any shipments that the 
firm may have made to the United States during the period of review. 
Rhone Poulenc failed to provide the information that has been requested 
by the administering authority. Therefore, pursuant to section 776(a) 
of the Act, the Department must base its determination on the facts 
available. Furthermore, because Rhone Poulenc failed to cooperate by 
not responding to the questionnaire, it is appropriate to use an 
inference adverse to the interests of Rhone Poulenc in selecting from 
the facts available, in accordance with section 776(b) of the Act.
    Section 776(b) authorizes the Department to use an inference 
adverse to the interests of that respondent in choosing the facts 
available. Section 776(b) also authorizes the Department to use as 
adverse facts available information derived from the petition, the 
final determination, a previous administrative review, or other 
information placed on the record. Because information from prior 
proceedings constitutes secondary information, section 776(c) provides 
that the Department shall, to the extent practicable, corroborate that 
secondary information from independent sources reasonably at its 
disposal. The Statement of Administrative Action provides that 
``corroborate'' means simply that the Department will satisfy itself 
that the secondary information to be used has probative value.
    To corroborate secondary information, the Department will, to the 
extent practicable, examine the reliability and relevance of the 
information to be used. However, unlike other types of information, 
such as input costs or selling expenses, there are no independent 
sources for calculated dumping margins. The only source for margins is 
administrative determinations. Thus, in an administrative review, if 
the Department chooses as total adverse facts available a calculated 
dumping margin from a prior segment of the proceeding, it is not 
necessary to question the reliability of the margin for that time 
period. With respect to the relevance aspect of corroboration, however, 
the Department will consider information reasonably at its disposal as 
to whether there are circumstances that would render a margin not 
relevant. Where circumstances indicate that the selected margin is not 
appropriate as adverse facts available, the Department will disregard 
the margin and determine an appropriate margin (see Fresh Cut Flowers 
from Mexico; Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, 
61 FR 6812 (February 22, 1996),

[[Page 30854]]

where the Department disregarded the highest margin as adverse BIA 
because the margin was based on another company's uncharacteristic 
business expense resulting in an unusually high margin).
    In this case, the Department has preliminarily determined to assign 
to Rhone Poulenc a margin of 60 percent, the margin calculated in the 
original less-than-fair-value (LTFV) investigation using information 
provided by Rhone Poulenc (see Anhydrous Sodium Metasilicate from 
France; Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 45 FR 
77498 (November 24, 1980)). There is no evidence of circumstances 
indicating that this margin is not appropriate.

Preliminary Results of the Review

    As a result of this review, the Department preliminarily determines 
that a margin of 60 percent exists for Rhone Poulenc for the January 1, 
1995 through December 31, 1995 period.
    Parties to the proceeding may request disclosure within 5 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 44 days after the publication of this notice, 
or the first workday thereafter. Interested parties may submit case 
briefs within 30 days of the date of publication of this notice. 
Rebuttal briefs, which must be limited to issues raised in the case 
briefs, may be filed not later than 37 days after the date of 
publication. The Department will publish a notice of final results of 
this administrative review, which will include the results of its 
analysis of issues raised in any such comments.
    The Department will determine, and the Customs Service will assess, 
antidumping duties on all appropriate entries. Upon completion of this 
review, the Department will issue appraisement instructions directly to 
the Customs Service.
    Furthermore, the following deposit rates will be effective upon 
publication of the final results of these administrative reviews for 
all shipments of ASM from France entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, 
for consumption on or after the publication date, as provided for by 
section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act: (1) The cash deposit rate for Rhone 
Poulenc will the rate established in the final results of this review; 
(2) for companies not covered in this review, but covered in previous 
reviews or the original 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, a 
prior review, or the LTFV investigation, but the manufacturer is, the 
cash deposit rate will be the rate established for the most recent 
period for the manufacturer of the merchandise; and (4) if neither the 
exporter nor the manufacturer is a firm covered in this or any previous 
review or the original LTFV investigation, the cash deposit rate will 
be 60 percent, the ``All Others'' rate established in the LTFV 
investigation (45 FR 77498, November 24, 1980).
    These deposit rates, when imposed, shall remain in effect until 
publication of the final results of the next administrative review.
    This notice also 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 administrative review and notice are in accordance with 
section 751(a)(1) of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(1)) and 19 CFR 353.22.

    Dated: June 11, 1996.

Robert S. LaRussa,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-15464 Filed 6-17-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P