[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 231 (Friday, November 29, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60679-60682]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30478]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-485-801]
Antifriction Bearings (Other than Tapered Roller Bearings) and
Parts Thereof from Romania; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty
Administrative Review
AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty
Administrative Review.
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SUMMARY: In response to a request by the petitioner, The Torrington
Company, the Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an
administrative review of the antidumping duty order on antifriction
bearings (other than tapered roller bearings) and parts thereof (AFBs),
from Romania. The review covers shipments of the subject merchandise to
the United States during the period May 1, 1993, through April 30,
1994.
We have preliminarily determined that sales have not been made
below the foreign market value (FMV). Interested parties are invited to
comment on these preliminary results.
EFFECTIVE DATE: November 29, 1996.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Riggle 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.
[[Page 60680]]
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On May 15, 1989, the Department published in the Federal Register
(54 FR 19109) the antidumping duty order on ball bearings and parts
thereof from Romania. On June 22, 1994 (59 FR 32180), we published the
notice of initiation of this antidumping duty administrative review.
The Department is conducting this administrative review in accordance
with section 751 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act).
Applicable Statute and Regulations
Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Act and to the
Department's regulations are in reference to the provisions as they
existed on December 31, 1994.
Scope of this Review
Imports covered by this review are shipments of AFBs from Romania.
This merchandise is currently classifiable under Harmonized Tariff
Schedule (HTS) item numbers 3926.90.45, 4016.93.00, 4016.93.10,
4016.93.50, 6909.19.5010, 8431.20.00, 8431.39.010, 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 on the
scope of the order being reviewed, including recent scope decisions,
see Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and
Parts Thereof from France, et al.; Final Results of Antidumping Duty
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 description
of the scope of this order remains dispositive.
This review covers one company, Tehnoimportexport S.A. (TIE), and
the period May 1, 1993, through April 30, 1994. Only TIE made shipments
of the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of
review. S.C. Rulmenti Grei S.A. Ploiesti (Ploiesti) and S.C. Rulmentul
S.A. Brasov (Brasov) produced the merchandise sold by TIE to the United
States, but stated that they did not ship AFBs directly to the United
States.
Verification
As provided in section 776(b) of the Act, we verified information
provided by TIE by using standard verification procedures, including
onsite inspection of a manufacturer's facility, the examination of
relevant sales and financial records and selection of original
documents containing relevant information. Our verification results are
outlined in the public versions of the verification reports.
Separate Rates
It is the Department's standard policy to assign all exporters of
merchandise subject to review in non-market-economy (NME) countries a
single rate, unless an exporter can demonstrate an absence of
government control, both in law and in fact, with respect to exports.
To establish whether a company is sufficiently independent to be
entitled to a separate rate, the Department analyzes each exporting
entity under the test established in the Final Determination of Sales
at Less Than Fair Value: Sparklers from the People's Republic of China
(56 FR 20588, May 6, 1991) (Sparklers), as amplified by the Final
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Silicon Carbide from
the People's Republic of China (59 FR 22585, May 2, 1994) (Silicon
Carbide). Evidence supporting, though not requiring, a finding of de
jure absence of government control includes: (1) an absence of
restrictive stipulations associated with an individual exporter's
business and export licenses; (2) any legislative enactments
decentralizing control of companies; and (3) any other formal measures
by the government decentralizing control of companies. De facto absence
of government control with respect to exports is based on four
criteria: (1) whether the export prices are set by or subject to the
approval of a government authority; (2) whether each exporter retains
the proceeds from its sales and makes independent decisions regarding
the disposition of profits or financing of losses; (3) whether each
exporter has autonomy in making decisions regarding the selection of
management; and (4) whether each exporter has the authority to
negotiate and sign contracts.
TIE is the only company covered by this review with shipments of
the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of
review. Therefore, TIE is the only firm for which we made a
determination as to its entitlement to a separate rate. Although some
evidence on the record may support a finding of de jure absence of
government control, other evidence demonstrates that TIE does not have
autonomy from the government in making decisions regarding the
selection of its management. This fact suggests that export prices are
subject to the approval of a government authority, and that TIE is not
free from government control when it negotiates and signs contracts.
Accordingly, we determined that there is de facto government control
with respect to TIE's exports according to the criteria identified in
Sparklers and Silicon Carbide. For further discussion of the
Department's preliminary determination that TIE is not entitled to a
separate rate, see Decision Memorandum to the Director, Office of
Antidumping Compliance: Assignment of a separate rate for
Tehnoimportexport, S.A., in the 1993-94 administrative review of the
antidumping duty order on Antifriction Bearings (Other than Tapered
Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof from Romania (January 31, 1996).
United States Price
Record evidence indicates that TIE was the only Romanian exporter
of the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of
review. For sales made by TIE, the Department used purchase price, in
accordance with section 772(b) of the Act, in calculating U.S. price.
We calculated purchase price based on the packed F.O.B. price to
unrelated purchasers in the United States. We made deductions, where
appropriate, for foreign inland freight, brokerage and handling, air
freight and bank charges. To value foreign inland freight and brokerage
and handling, we used surrogate information from Turkey for reasons
explained in the ``Foreign Market Value'' section of this notice. We
deducted the actual expenses for air freight and bank charges because
these expenses were incurred in U.S. dollars.
Foreign Market Value
For merchandise exported from an NME country, section 773(c)(1) of
the Act provides that the Department shall determine FMV using a
factors of production methodology if available information does not
permit the calculation of FMV using home market prices, third country
prices, or constructed value (CV) under section 773(a) of the Act.
In every case conducted by the Department involving Romania,
Romania has been treated as an NME country. None of the parties to this
proceeding has contested such treatment in this review, and thus, in
accordance with section 771(18)(C) of
[[Page 60681]]
the Act, we continue to treat Romania as an NME country.
Accordingly, in accordance with section 773(c) of the Act and
section 353.52 of the Department's regulations, we calculated FMV on
the basis of the value of TIE's factors of production and other
required expenses, which included hours of labor required, quantities
of raw materials employed, selling, general and administrative
expenses, overhead, profit and packing, as reported by TIE and verified
by the Department. We valued the factors of production using prices or
costs in one or more surrogate market economy countries. Specifically,
we first determined that Morocco, Ecuador, Colombia, Algeria, Poland
and Turkey are each at a level of economic development comparable to
Romania in terms of per capita gross national product (GNP), the growth
rate in per capita GNP, and the national distribution of labor. Of
these potential surrogate countries, we found that both Poland and
Turkey are significant producers of bearings, but that Poland has a
larger bearings industry than Turkey. Therefore, we selected Poland as
the primary surrogate country for these preliminary results. Where we
were unable to locate publicly available published information to
establish surrogate values from Poland, we used Turkey as a secondary
surrogate country. For further discussion of our selection of these
surrogate countries, see Memorandum to the File: Selection of Surrogate
Country in the 1993-94 Administrative Review of the Antidumping Duty
Order on Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and
Parts Thereof from Romania (December 5, 1995).
For purposes of calculating FMV, we valued the Romanian factors of
production as follows, in accordance with section 773(c)(1) of the Act:
To value domestically-sourced direct materials used in the
production of AFBs, we used the European currency unit (ECU) per metric
ton value of imports into Poland from the countries of the European
Community for the period May 1993 through April 1994, obtained from the
EUROSTAT, Monthly EC External Trade (EUROSTAT). We made adjustments to
include freight costs incurred between the domestic raw materials
suppliers and the AFB factories. Some materials used to produce AFBs
were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, to value
those materials, we used the actual import price. We also made an
adjustment for steel scrap which was sold. Scrap was valued using
information obtained from EUROSTAT for Poland.
For direct labor, we used the average monthly wages for
the metal products manufacturing industry reported in the September
1994 issue of the Statistical Bulletin, published by the Central
Statistical Office in Warsaw. To determine the number of hours worked
each month, we used information published by the International Labour
Office in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1994.
For factory overhead, we used information from a publicly
available summarized version for factory overhead reported for the
1993-94 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on welded
carbon steel pipe and tube from Turkey (pipe and tube from Turkey),
because we had no publicly available published information from Poland
for this expense. Factory overhead was reported as a percentage of
total cost of manufacture.
For selling, general, and administrative expenses, we used
the statutory minimum of 10 percent found in section 773(e)(1)(B)
pursuant to our authority in section 773(e)(1), because we had no
publicly available published surrogate country information for these
expenses.
For profit, we used information from a publicly available
summarized version for profit reported for pipe and tube from Turkey,
because we had no publicly available published information from Poland
for this expense.
To value domestically-sourced packing materials, we used
the ECU per metric ton value of imports into Poland from the countries
of the European Community as published in the EUROSTAT. We adjusted
these values to include freight costs incurred between the domestic
packing materials suppliers and the AFB factories. Some materials used
to pack AFBs were imported into Romania from market-economy countries,
and, to value those materials, we used the actual import price.
To value foreign inland freight, we used information from
a publicly available summarized version for foreign inland freight
reported for pipe and tube from Turkey, because we had no publicly
available published information from Poland for this expense.
Currency Conversion
We made currency conversions in accordance with 19 CFR 353.60(a).
Currency conversions were made at the rates certified by the Federal
Reserve Bank for the surrogate countries, or, where certified Federal
Reserve Bank rates were not available, average monthly exchange rates
published by the International Monetary Fund in International Financial
Statistics.
Preliminary Results of the Review
As a result of our review, we preliminarily determine that the
following margin exists:
Manufacturer/Exporter...........................Tehnoimportexport, S.A.
Time Period..............................................5/1/93-4/30/94
Margin (percent)...................................................0.00
Parties to this 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. See section 353.38 of the Department's regulations. 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 shall determine, and the Customs Service shall
assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate entries. The Department
will issue appraisement instructions directly to the Customs Service.
Furthermore, the following deposit requirements will be effective
upon publication of the final results of this administrative review for
all shipments of AFBs from Romania entered, or withdrawn from
warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date, as
provided for by section 751(a)(1) of the Act: (1) the cash deposit rate
for TIE, and for all other Romanian exporters, will be the rate
established in the final results of this review; and (2) for non-
Romanian exporters of subject merchandise from Romania, the cash
deposit rate will be the rate applicable to the Romanian supplier of
that exporter. These deposit requirements, when imposed, shall remain
in effect until publication of the final results of the next
administrative review.
Notification of Interested Parties
This notice serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of their
responsibility under section 353.26 of the Department's regulations to
file a certificate regarding the reimbursement of antidumping duties
prior to
[[Page 60682]]
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 and section 353.22 of the Department's
regulations.
Dated: November 20, 1996.
Robert S. LaRussa,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-30478 Filed 11-27-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P