[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)
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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