[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 5 (Friday, January 7, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1136-1139]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-397]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration
[A-570-506]


Porcelain-on-Steel Cooking Ware From the People's Republic of 
China; 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: The Department of Commerce (``the Department'') is conducting 
an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on Porcelain-on-
Steel (``POS'') Cooking Ware from the People's Republic of China 
(``PRC'') in response to a request by the petitioner. The review covers 
one manufacturer/exporter of the subject merchandise, Clover Enamelware 
Enterprise, Ltd. of China (``Clover''), and its Hong Kong reseller, 
Lucky Enamelware Factory Ltd. (``Lucky''). The period of review 
(``POR'') is December 1, 1997 through November 30, 1998.
    We have preliminarily determined that U.S. sales of subject 
merchandise by Clover and Lucky have not been made below normal value 
(hereinafter referred to as Clover/Lucky). Since Clover/Lucky submitted 
full responses to the antidumping questionnaire and it has been 
established that it is sufficiently independent, it is entitled to a 
separate rate. If these preliminary results are adopted in our final 
results of administrative review, we will instruct the U.S. Customs 
Service to assess no antidumping duties on entries from Clover/Lucky 
during the POR.
    Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary 
results.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 7, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Russell Morris, Office of AD/CVD 
Enforcement VI, Group II, Import Administration, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington D.C. 20230; telephone: (202) 482-
1775.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Applicable Statute

    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Tariff Act of 
1930, as amended (``the Act''), are references 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 the regulations at 19 CFR Part 351 (1999).

Background

    On December 2, 1986, the Department published in the Federal 
Register the antidumping duty order on POS cooking ware from the PRC 
(51 FR 43414). On December 8, 1998, the Department published in the 
Federal Register a notice of opportunity to request an administrative 
review of this antidumping duty order (63 FR 67646). On December 30, 
1998, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(b), the petitioner, Columbian 
Home Products, LLC, requested that the Department conduct an 
administrative review of Clover, a manufacturer/exporter, and its Hong 
Kong reseller Lucky. On January 25, 1999, we published the notice of 
initiation of this review covering the period December 1, 1997 through 
November 30, 1998 (64 FR 3682).
    Under section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act, the Department may extend 
the deadline for issuing a preliminary determination in an 
administrative review if it determines that it is not practicable to 
complete the preliminary review within the statutory time limit of 245 
days. On August 25, 1999, the

[[Page 1137]]

Department published a notice of extension of the time limit for the 
preliminary results in this case to December 31, 1999 (64 FR 46349). 
The Department is conducting this administrative review in accordance 
with section 751(a) of the Act.

Scope of the Review

    Imports covered by this review are shipments of POS cooking ware, 
including tea kettles, which do not have self-contained electric 
heating elements. All of the foregoing are constructed of steel and are 
enameled or glazed with vitreous glasses. The merchandise is currently 
classifiable under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (``HTS'') item 
7323.94.00. HTS items numbers are provided for convenience and Customs 
purposes. The written description of the scope remains dispositive.

Affiliated Parties

    Clover is two-thirds owned by Lucky and, therefore, Lucky holds 
controlling interest in Clover. Due to Lucky's ownership interest in 
Clover, and the fact that the same individual is the general manager at 
both companies, we consider Clover and Lucky to be affiliated parties 
pursuant to section 771(33) of the Act. As such, and consistent with 
prior reviews of this order, we are assigning Clover/Lucky a single 
dumping margin. See Porcelain-on-Steel Cooking Ware from the People's 
Republic of China: Final Results of Antidumping Administrative Review 
(``POS Final 1997''); 62 FR 32758 (June 17, 1997). No new information 
or evidence of changed circumstances has been submitted in this 
proceeding to warrant reconsideration of this finding.

Separate Rates

    It is the Department's policy to assign all exporters of the 
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 (de jure) and in fact (de facto), with 
respect to exports. To establish whether an exporter is sufficiently 
independent of government control to be entitled to a separate rate, 
the Department analyzes the exporter in light of the criteria 
established in the Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value: Sparklers from the People's Republic of China (``Sparklers''), 
56 FR 20588 (May 6, 1991), as amplified in the Final Determination of 
Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Silicon Carbide from the People's 
Republic of China (``Silicon Carbide''), 59 FR 22585 (May 2, 1994). 
Evidence supporting, though not requiring, a finding of de jure absence 
of government control over export activities 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. 
Evidence relevant to a de facto absence of government control with 
respect to exports is based on four factors, whether the respondent: 
(1) Sets its own export prices independent from the government and 
other exporters; (2) can retain the proceeds from its export sales; (3) 
has the authority to negotiate and sign contracts; and (4) has autonomy 
from the government regarding the selection of management. See Silicon 
Carbide, 59 FR at 22585, 22587; see also, Sparklers, 56 FR at 20588, 
20589.
    Clover/Lucky responded to the Department's request for information 
regarding separate rates by providing the requested documentation. We 
have determined that the evidence on the record demonstrates an absence 
of government control, both in law and in fact, with respect to Clover/
Lucky's exports, in accordance with the criteria identified in 
Sparklers and Silicon Carbide. For further information, see Memorandum, 
``Separate Rates in the 1997/1998 Administrative Review of Porcelain-
on-Steel Cooking Ware from the People's Republic of China,'' dated the 
same date of this notice, which is on file in our Central Records Unit, 
room B-099 in the main Commerce building. As a result of our analysis, 
Clover/Lucky is entitled to a separate rate.

Export Price

    The Department used export price (``EP'') for sales made by Clover/
Lucky, in accordance with section 772(a) of the Act, because the 
subject merchandise was sold to unaffiliated purchasers in the United 
States, or Hong Kong (in cases where Clover/Lucky knew the ultimate 
destination was the United States), prior to importation into the 
United States and constructed export price is not otherwise indicated.
    We calculated EP based on Lucky's price charged to unaffiliated 
purchasers in the United States. We deducted amounts, where 
appropriate, for discounts, brokerage and handling, foreign inland 
freight, ocean freight, export credit insurance, and marine insurance, 
which were provided by market economy carriers and paid for in market 
economy currencies. Moreover, we deducted the reported import and 
export declarations fees. See POS Final 1997.

Normal Value

    Section 773(c)(1) of the Act provides that the Department shall 
determine the normal value (``NV'') using a factors-of-production 
methodology if: (1) The merchandise is exported from an NME country; 
and (2) the information does not permit the calculation of NV using 
home-market prices, third-country prices, or constructed value under 
section 773(a) of the Act.
    The Department has treated the PRC as an NME country in all 
previous antidumping cases. In accordance with section 771(18)(C)(i) of 
the Act, any determination that a foreign country is an NME country 
shall remain in effect until revoked by the administering authority. 
None of the parties to this proceeding has contested such treatment in 
this review. Therefore, we treated the PRC as an NME country for 
purposes of this review. Furthermore, available information does not 
permit the calculation of NV using home market prices, third country 
prices, or constructed value under section 773(a) of the Act. As a 
result, we calculated NV by valuing the factors of production in a 
comparable market economy country which is a significant producer of 
comparable merchandise.
    Section 773(c)(4) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.408 direct us to select 
a surrogate country that is economically comparable to the PRC. On the 
basis of per capita gross domestic product (``GDP''), the growth rate 
in per capita GDP, and the national distribution of labor, we find that 
the Republic of Indonesia (``Indonesia'') is a comparable economy to 
the PRC. (See Memorandum to David Mueller, Director, Office of AD/CVD 
Enforcement VI from Jeff May, Director, Office of Policy, dated May 21, 
1999, ``Porcelain-on-Steel Cooking Ware from the People's Republic of 
China, Non-Market Economy Status and Surrogate Country Selection'' on 
file in the Central Records Unit.)
    Section 773(c)(4) of the Act also requires that, to the extent 
possible, the Department use a surrogate country that is a significant 
producer of merchandise comparable to POS cooking ware. For purposes of 
this administrative review, we find that Indonesia is a significant 
producer of POS cooking ware. See Memorandum to the File from Russell 
Morris, dated June 7, 1999, ``Porcelain-on Steel Cooking Ware from the 
People's Republic of China--Surrogate Country Selection,'' on file in 
the Central Records Unit. As a result, we have used publicly available 
information relating to Indonesia, unless

[[Page 1138]]

otherwise noted, to value the various factors of production.
    For purposes of calculating NV, we valued PRC factors of 
production, in accordance with section 773(c)(1) of the Act. Factors of 
production include, but are not limited to: hours of labor employed; 
quantities of raw materials required; amounts of energy and other 
utilities consumed; and representative capital cost, including 
depreciation. In examining surrogate values, we selected, where 
possible, the publicly available value which was: an average non-export 
value; representative of a range of prices within the POR or most 
contemporaneous with the POR; product-specific; and tax-exclusive. For 
a more detailed explanation of the methodology used in calculating 
various surrogate values, see ``Margin Calculation and Factor Values 
Used for the Preliminary Results of the 1997-1998 Administrative Review 
of POS Cooking Ware from the PRC'' (Public Version) which is dated the 
same date of this notice, on file in the Central Records Unit. In 
accordance with this methodology, we valued the factors of production 
as follows:
     To value the surrogate values of materials used in the 
production of POS cooking ware, including bentonite, caustic soda, 
potassium chloride, titanium and antimony oxides, sodium nitrite, soda 
ash, sulphuric acid, degreasing agents, borax, barium molybdate, 
magnesium sulphate, potassium carbonate, urea, quartz powder, clay, 
color oxides, enamel frits, pebble stone, and diesel, we relied on 
cost-insurance-freight (``CIF'') import prices, quoted in U.S. dollars, 
contained in the August 1998 issue of the Foreign Trade Statistical 
Bulletin--Imports, (Indonesian Import Statistics). We made adjustments 
to account for freight costs between the suppliers and Clover's 
manufacturing facilities. In accordance with our practice, we added to 
CIF import values from Indonesia a surrogate freight cost using the 
shorter of the reported distances from either the closest PRC port to 
the factory, or from the domestic supplier to the factory. See Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain Cut-to-Length 
Carbon Steel Plate From the People's Republic of China, 62 FR 61977 
(November 20, 1997).
     We valued labor based on a regression-based wage rate, in 
accordance with 19 CFR 351.408(c)(3). See Import Administration's home 
page, Import Library, Expected Wages of Selected NME Countries, revised 
May 1999 (www.ita.doc.gov/import__admin/records/wages). The source of 
these wage rate data on the Import Administration's Web site is found 
in the 1998 Year Book of Labour Statistics, International Labour Office 
(Geneva: 1998), Chapter 5: Wages in Manufacturing.
     For electricity, we used an index of electricity prices 
used in previous antidumping duty investigations involving products 
from the PRC. This index is current as of April 1997. See 
www.ita.doc.gov/import__admin/records/factorv/prc/#Source Index. 
Because the value was not contemporaneous with the POR, we adjusted for 
inflation using the wholesale price indices (``WPI'') which excluded 
petroleum, obtained from the International Financial Statistics 
published by the International Monetary Fund (``IMF''). We adjusted the 
value to reflect inflation up to the POR using the WPI published by the 
IMF. Further, we converted the electrical price quoted in Indonesian 
Rupiah (``Rupiah'') to U.S. dollars using the average exchange rate for 
the POR of Rupiah to U.S. dollars.
     For foreign inland freight, we used the freight rates 
reported in a September 1991 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, 
Indonesia and the actual kilometers reported in the questionnaire 
response. The cable was received for the less than fair value 
(``LTFV'') investigation of Pipe Fittings. See Final Determination of 
Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain Carbon Steel Butt-Weld Pipe 
Fittings from the People's Republic of China (``Pipe Fittings''), 57 FR 
21058 (May 18, 1992). We adjusted these freight rates to reflect yearly 
inflation through the POR using the WPI obtained by the IMF. We used 
the average exchange rate for the POR to convert surrogate values from 
Rupiah to U.S. dollars.
     To value water, we relied upon public information from the 
October 1997 Second Water Utilities Data Book: Asian and Pacific 
Region, published by the Asian Development Bank. To achieve 
comparability of the water prices to the factors reported for the POS 
cooking ware processing periods applicable for Clover/Lucky, we 
adjusted this factor value for inflation using the WPI for Indonesia, 
as published by the IMF, and converting the quoted price from Rupiah to 
U.S. dollars by applying the average Rupiah to U.S. dollar exchange 
rate for the POR.
     We derived ratios for factory overhead, selling, general 
and administrative (``SG&A'') expenses, and profit using an index of 
such expenses from previous antidumping duty investigations involving 
products from the PRC. The ratios were derived from a similar industry, 
melamine institutional dinnerware, and from the same surrogate country, 
Indonesia. This index is current as of April 1997. See www.ita.doc.gov/
import__admin/records/factorv/prc/#Source Index. From this information, 
we were able to calculate factory overhead as a percentage of direct 
material, labor, and energy expenses; SG&A as a percentage of the total 
cost of manufacturing; and profit as a percentage of the sum of the 
total cost of manufacturing and SG&A.
     To value cardboard boxes and tissue paper, we relied upon 
Indonesian import data from the August 1998 issue of the Foreign Trade 
Statistical Bulletin--Imports, (Indonesian Import Statistics). We 
adjusted the values of packing materials to include freight costs 
incurred between the supplier and the factory.

Preliminary Results of the Review

    We preliminarily determine that the following margins exist for the 
period December 1, 1997 through November 30, 1998:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Margin
                   Manufacturer/Exporter                      (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clover Enamelware Enterprise/Lucky Enamelware Factory......         0.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.224(b), the Department will disclose to 
parties to the proceeding any calculations performed in connection with 
these preliminary results within five (5) days after the date of 
publication of this notice.
    Interested parties may request a hearing within 30 days of 
publication of this notice. See 19 CFR 351.310(c). Interested parties 
may submit case briefs within 30 days of publication. Rebuttal briefs, 
limited to issues raised in the case briefs, may be filed no later than 
35 days after the date of publication. Parties who submit case briefs 
or rebuttal briefs in this proceeding are requested to submit with each 
argument: (1) A statement of the issue, and (2) a brief summary of the 
argument. Parties are also encouraged to provide a summary of the 
arguments not to exceed five pages and a table of statutes, 
regulations, and cases cited. The Department will issue the final 
results of this administrative review, including its analysis of issues 
raised in any case or rebuttal brief or at a hearing, not later than 
120 days after the date of publication of this notice, unless the time 
limits is extended.
    The Department shall determine, and the Customs Service shall 
assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate entries. Upon completion 
of this review, the Department will issue appraisement

[[Page 1139]]

instructions directly to the U.S. Customs Service.
    Furthermore, the following deposit requirements will be effective 
upon publication of the final results of this antidumping duty 
administrative review for all shipments of the subject merchandise 
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the 
publication date, as provided by section 751(a)(1) of the Act: (1) For 
Clover/Lucky, which has a separate rate, the cash deposit rate will be 
zero; (2) for any previously reviewed PRC firm and non-PRC exporter 
with a separate rate, the cash deposit rate will be the company-and 
product-specific rate established for the most recent period; (3) the 
cash deposit rate for all other PRC exporters will continue to be 66.65 
percent, the PRC-wide rate established in the LTFV investigation; and 
(4) the cash deposit rate for non-PRC exporters of subject merchandise 
from the PRC will be the rate applicable to the PRC supplier of that 
exporter. These 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 351.402(f) 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 is issued and published in accordance 
with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.

    Dated: January 3, 2000.
Richard W. Moreland,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 00-397 Filed 1-6-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P