[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 232 (Monday, December 2, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63826-63828]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30623]



[[Page 63826]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
[A-485-602]


Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished or 
Unfinished, 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 Timken Company 
(Timken), the Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an 
administrative review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller 
bearings and parts thereof, finished or unfinished, (TRBs) from 
Romania. The review covers shipments of the subject merchandise to the 
United States during the period June 1, 1993, through May 31, 1994. The 
review indicates the existence of dumping margins during the period of 
review.
    We have preliminarily determined that sales have been made below 
the foreign market value (FMV). If these preliminary results are 
adopted in our final results of administrative review, we will instruct 
U.S. Customs to assess antidumping duties equal to the difference 
between United States price (U.S. price) and the FMV.
    Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary 
results.

EFFECTIVE DATE: December 2, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karin Price or Maureen Flannery, 
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:

Background

    On June 19, 1987, the Department published in the Federal Register 
(52 FR 23320) the antidumping duty order on TRBs from Romania. On June 
7, 1994, the Department published in the Federal Register (59 FR 29411) 
a notice of opportunity to request an administrative review of this 
antidumping duty order. On June 30, 1994, in accordance with 19 CFR 
353.22(a), the petitioner requested that we conduct an administrative 
review of Tehnoimportexport, S.A. (TIE); Tehnoforestexport; S.C. 
Rulmenti S.A. Alexandria (Alexandria); S.C. Rulmentul S.A. Brasov 
(Brasov); S.C. Rulmenti S.A. Barlad (Barlad); S.C. Rulmenti Grei S.A. 
Ploiesti (Ploiesti); S.C. Rulmenti S.A. Slatina (Slatina); and S.C. URB 
Rulmenti Suceava S.A. (Suceava). We published the notice of initiation 
of this antidumping duty administrative review on July 15, 1994 (59 FR 
36160). The Department is conducting this administrative review in 
accordance with section 751 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the 
Act).
    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the statute 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 TRBs from Romania. 
These products include flange, take-up cartridge, and hanger units 
incorporating tapered roller bearings, and tapered roller housings 
(except pillow blocks) incorporating tapered rollers, with or without 
spindles, whether or not for automotive use. This merchandise is 
currently classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) item 
numbers 8482.20.00, 8482.91.00, 8482.99.30, 8483.20.40, 8483.30.40, and 
8483.90.20. Although 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 eight companies and the period June 1, 1993 
through May 31, 1994. Of the eight companies for which petitioner 
requested a review, only TIE made shipments of the subject merchandise 
to the United States during the period of review. Alexandria and Brasov 
produced the merchandise sold by TIE to the United States, but have 
stated that they did not ship TRBs directly to the United States. 
Tehnoforestexport, Barlad, Ploiesti, Slatina, and Suceava have 
responded that they did not produce or sell TRBs subject to this 
review.

Separate Rates

    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). Under this policy, exporters in non-market-economy (NME) 
countries are entitled to separate, company-specific margins when they 
can demonstrate an absence of government control, both in law and in 
fact, with respect to exports. 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 have made a 
determination of whether it should receive a separate rate. The 
evidence on the record demonstrates that TIE does not have autonomy in 
making decisions regarding the selection of its management. 
Consequently, we have found 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, dated June 19, 1995; ``Assignment of a separate 
rate for Tehnoimportexport, S.A. in the 1993/1994 administrative review 
of tapered roller bearings and parts thereof, finished or unfinished, 
from Romania,'' which is on file in the Central Records Unit (room B099 
of the Main Commerce Building).

Verification

    Verification of the questionnaire responses of TIE was conducted 
between April 3, 1995, and April 8, 1995, at TIE's facility in 
Bucharest, Romania. The majority of TIE's exports were of merchandise 
produced by Brasov, and we conducted an additional verification at 
Brasov's facility in Brasov, Romania. Verification of Brasov's 
questionnaire response, in which it stated that it had no direct 
shipments of TRBs to the United States

[[Page 63827]]

during the period of review, was conducted at its facility in Brasov, 
Romania.

United States Price

    Information on the record 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 price to 
unrelated purchasers. We made deductions, where appropriate, for 
foreign inland freight and ocean freight. We used surrogate information 
from Turkey to value foreign inland freight for reasons explained in 
the ``Foreign Market Value'' section of this notice.

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. Accordingly, we 
calculated FMV in accordance with section 773(c) of the Act and section 
353.52 of the Department's regulations based on information submitted 
by TIE and verified by the Department. We determined that 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. We have 
found that both Poland and Turkey are significant producers of 
bearings, but that Poland has a larger bearings industry than Turkey. 
Therefore, we have selected Poland as the primary surrogate country. 
Where we have been unable to locate publicly available published 
information to establish surrogate values from Poland, we have used 
Turkey as a secondary surrogate country. For further discussion of the 
Department's selection of these surrogate countries, see Memorandum to 
the Acting Division Director, dated March 24, 1995; ``Surrogate Country 
Selection for Tapered Roller Bearings from Romania,'' and Memorandum to 
the File, dated May 4, 1995, ``Selection of the surrogate country in 
the 1993/1994 administrative review of tapered roller bearings and 
parts thereof, finished or unfinished, from Romania,'' which are on 
file in the Central Records Unit (room B099 of the Main Commerce 
Building).
    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 all direct materials used in the production of 
TRBs, 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 June 1993 through May 1994, obtained from the EUROSTAT, 
Monthly EC External Trade (EUROSTAT). Because these statistics are 
exclusive of freight charges incurred by Poland, we have applied to 
each surrogate price a CIF/FOB conversion factor, which was obtained 
from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, 1995, published 
by the International Monetary Fund. Some materials used to produce TRBs 
were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, in these 
instances, we used the import price to value the relevant portion of 
the material input. We made adjustments to include freight costs 
incurred between the suppliers and the TRB factories. We also made an 
adjustment for scrap steel which was sold.
     For direct labor, we used the average monthly wages for 
the manufacture of machinery except electrical 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 week, we used information published by the Economic 
Intelligence Unit in Investing, Licensing & Trading Conditions Abroad, 
Poland, April 1994.
     For factory overhead, we used information from a publicly 
available summarized version for factory overhead reported for the 
1993/1994 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 useable 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 percentages found in section 773(e)(1)(B) 
pursuant to our authority in section 773(e)(1), because we had no 
useable 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 useable information from Poland for this expense.
     To value the 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. Because these statistics are 
exclusive of freight charges incurred by Poland, we have applied to 
each surrogate price a CIF/FOB conversion factor, which was obtained 
from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, 1995, published 
by the International Monetary Fund. Some materials used to pack TRBs 
were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, in these 
instances, we used the import price to value the relevant portion of 
the packing material. We adjusted these values to include freight costs 
incurred between the suppliers and the TRB factories.
     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 useable 
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, 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:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                 Margin 
           Manufacturer/exporter               Time period     (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romania Rate..............................     6/1/93-5/31/94       0.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    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. See section 353.38(d) of the Department's

[[Page 63828]]

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. Individual 
differences between U.S. price and FMV may vary from the percentages 
stated above. The Department will issue appraisement instructions 
directly to the Customs Service.

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 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 section 353.22 
of the Department's regulations.

    Dated: November 20, 1996.
Robert S. LaRussa,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-30623 Filed 11-29-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P