[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 44 (Friday, March 6, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11217-11219]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-5865]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration
[A-485-602]


Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished or 
Unfinished, From Romania; Preliminary Results of Antidumping 
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 requests by the petitioner, The Timken Company 
(``Timken''), and the respondent, Tehnoimportexport, S.A. (``TIE''), 
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, 1996, through May 31, 1997.
    Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary 
results. Parties who submit arguments are requested to submit with each 
argument (1) a statement of the issue and (2) a brief summary of the 
argument.

EFFECTIVE DATE: March 6, 1998.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Carrie Blozy or Rick Johnson, Office 
of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Enforcement, Import 
Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 
20230; telephone: (202) 482-0374 or (202) 482-0165.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Applicable Statute

    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Tariff Act of 
1930, as amended (the Act), are to the provisions effective January 1, 
1995, the effective date of the amendments made to the Act by the 
Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). In addition, unless otherwise 
indicated, all citations to the Department's regulations are to 19 CFR 
Part 353, as they existed on April 1, 1996.

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 
11, 1997, the Department published in the Federal Register (62 FR 
31786, 31787) a notice of opportunity to request an administrative 
review of this antidumping duty order. On June 30, 1997, the Department 
received requests from the petitioner and the respondent to conduct an 
administrative review of TIE. On August 1, 1997, in accordance with 19 
CFR 353.22(c), we published the notice of initiation of this 
antidumping administrative review in the Federal Register (62 FR 
41340).

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

[[Page 11218]]

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.

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.
    We have found that the evidence on the record demonstrates an 
absence of government control, both in law and in fact, with respect to 
TIE according to the criteria established in Sparklers and Silicon 
Carbide. For a further discussion of the Department's preliminary 
determination that TIE is entitled to a separate rate, see Memorandum 
to Edward Yang, Director, Office IX, AD/CVD Enforcement, Import 
Administration, dated March 2, 1998: Antidumping Administrative Review 
of Tapered Roller Bearings from Romania: Assignment of a Separate Rate 
for Tehnoimportexport, S.A. in the 1996/97 review, which is on file in 
the Central Records Unit (room B099 of the Main Commerce Building).

Export Price

    For sales made by TIE, the Department used export price, in 
accordance with section 772(a) of the Act, in calculating U.S. price. 
We calculated export price based on the price to unrelated purchasers. 
We made adjustments, where appropriate, for foreign inland freight and 
ocean freight. We used surrogate information from Indonesia to value 
foreign inland freight for reasons explained in the ``Normal Value'' 
section of this notice.

Normal Value

    For merchandise exported from an NME country, section 773(c)(1) of 
the Act provides that the Department shall determine Normal Value 
(``NV'') using factors of production methodology if available 
information does not permit the calculation of NV using home market or 
third country prices 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 NV in 
accordance with section 773(c) of the Act and 19 CFR 353.52. In 
accordance with section 773(c)(3) of the Act, the factors of production 
utilized in producing TRBs include, but are not limited to (a) hours of 
labor required, (b) quantities of raw materials employed, (c) amounts 
of energy and other utilities consumed, and (d) representative capital 
cost, including depreciation. In accordance with section 773(c)(4) of 
the Act, the Department valued the factors of production, to the extent 
possible, using the prices or costs of factors of production in a 
market economy country that is (a) at a level of economic development 
comparable to that of Romania, and (b) a significant producer of 
comparable merchandise.
    We determined that Indonesia is at a level of economic development 
comparable to that of Romania. We also found that Indonesia is a 
producer of bearings. Therefore, we have selected Indonesia as the 
surrogate country. For a further discussion of the Department's 
selection of a surrogate country, see Memorandum to the File: 
Antidumping Administrative Review of Tapered Roller Bearings from 
Romania: Selection of a Surrogate Country in the 1996/97 Review, dated 
March 2, 1998, which is on file in the Central Records Unit (room B099 
of the Main Commerce Building).
    For purposes of calculating NV, we valued the Romanian factors of 
production as follows:
     When materials used to produce TRBs were imported into 
Romania from market economy countries, we used the import price to 
value the material input. To value all other direct materials used in 
the production of TRBs, we used the import value per metric ton of 
these materials into Indonesia as published in the Indonesian Foreign 
Trade Statistical Bulletin--Imports and adjusted, as appropriate, with 
the wholesale price index inflator to place these values on an 
equivalent basis for the period of review (``POR''). With two 
exceptions, the data used for all material inputs was taken from the 
period January 1996 through December 1996. For cold-rolled sheet for 
cages, the only available data was from the period January 1995 through 
November 1995, and for hot-rolled steel bars, the only available data 
was from the period January 1996 through February 1996. Additionally, 
for hot-rolled rods, we adjusted the material input value to exclude 
imports into Indonesia of insignificant quantities and imports from 
known non-producers of bearing quality steel. For transportation 
distances used for the calculation of freight expenses on raw 
materials, we added to surrogate values from Indonesia a surrogate 
freight cost using the shorter of (a) the distance between the closest 
Indonesian port and the factory, or (b) the distance between the actual 
supplier and the factory. See Notice of Final Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value: Collated Roofing Nails From the People's Republic 
of China, 62 FR 51410 (October 1, 1997). We used freight rates obtained 
from a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia to the 
Department for use in the preliminary determination of the antidumping 
duty investigation of Certain Carbon Steel Butt-Weld Pipe Fittings from 
the People's Republic of China, dated September 9, 1991.
     For direct labor, we used the Indonesian average daily 
wages and hours worked per week for the iron and steel basic industries 
reported in the 1994 Special Supplement to the Bulletin of Labour 
Statistics, published by the International Labour Office. For indirect 
labor, we used the supervisory labor rates used in the Final 
Determination of Sales at Less than Fair Value; Disposable Pocket 
Lighters from the People's Republic of China, 60 FR 22359 (May 5, 
1995), which were calculated based on information contained in Doing 
Business in Indonesia (1991).

[[Page 11219]]

This rate is not industry-specific but, rather, represents a general 
estimate of supervisory labor in Indonesia. We have adjusted these 
wages, based on the wholesale price index inflator, for the POR.
     For factory overhead, selling, general and administrative 
expenses, and profit, we could not find values for the bearings 
industry in Indonesia. Therefore, we used a publicly available 1996 
financial statement of P.T. Jaya Pari Steel Ltd, an Indonesian producer 
engaged in the iron and steel making industry, an industry comparable 
to TRBs, which was recently used in the Final Results of Antidumping 
Duty Administrative Reviews; Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered 
Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, 
Romania, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom, 62 FR 54043 (October 
17, 1997).
     To value packing materials, when materials used to package 
TRBs were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, we used 
the import prices to value the material input. To value all other 
packing materials, we used the import value per metric ton of these 
materials for the period January 1996 through December 1996 (and 
adjusted with the wholesale price index inflator to place these values 
on an equivalent basis for the POR), as published in the Indonesian 
Foreign Trade Statistical Bulletin--Imports. We adjusted these values 
to include freight costs incurred using the shorter of (a) the distance 
between the closest Indonesian port and the factory, or (b) the 
distance between the actual supplier and the factory.
     To value foreign inland freight, we used freight rates 
obtained from a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, as 
indicated above. For a complete description of these adjustments, see 
TIE Analysis Memorandum for the Preliminary Results, dated March 2, 
1998, at pg. 1.

Currency Conversion

    We made currency conversions in accordance with Section 773A(a) of 
the Act. For currency conversions involving the Indonesian Rupiah, we 
used exchange rates published by the International Monetary Fund in 
International Financial Statistics. For all other conversions, we used 
daily exchange rates published by the Federal Reserve.

Preliminary Results of the Review

    As a result of our review, we preliminarily determine that the 
following margin exists:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                 Margin 
                 Exporter                      Time period     (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tehnoimportexport, S.A....................     6/1/96-5/31/97      0.86 
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    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, within 120 days after 
the date of publication of these preliminary results.
    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 U.S. Customs 
Service.
    Furthermore, the following deposit requirements will be effective 
upon publication of the final results of this administrative review for 
all shipments of TRBs from Romania 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 TIE will be the rate we determine in the final results of 
review; (2) for all other Romanian exporters, the cash deposit rate 
will be the Romania-wide rate made effective by the amended final 
results of the 1994-95 administrative review (see Tapered Roller 
Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished or Unfinished, from Romania; 
Amendment of Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, 
61 FR 59416 (November 22, 1996)); (3) 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.
    This notice serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of their 
responsibility under 19 CFR 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 19 CFR 353.22.

    Dated: March 2, 1998.
Robert S. LaRussa,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 98-5865 Filed 3-5-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P