[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 21, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15837-15839]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-6912]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-815]


Sulfanilic Acid From the People's Republic of China: Final 
Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of final results of antidumping duty administrative 
review.

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SUMMARY: On September 14, 2000, the Department of Commerce (the 
Department) published the preliminary results of its administrative 
review of the antidumping duty order on sulfanilic acid from the 
People's Republic of China. The review covers the period August 1, 1998 
to July 31, 1999, and two firms: Zhenxing Chemical Industry Company 
(Zhenxing) and Yude Chemical Industry Company (Yude). The final results 
of this review indicate that the two responding parties, Zhenxing and 
Yude, failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of their ability in 
responding to our requests for information. Consequently, we continue 
to find the use of adverse facts available warranted, and have used the 
single margin ``PRC rate'' as adverse facts available with respect to 
Zhenxing and Yude, which is listed below in the ``Final Results of the 
Review'' section of this notice.

EFFECTIVE DATE: March 21, 2001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sean Carey or Samantha Denenberg, 
Office of AD/CVD Enforcement VII, Group III, Import Administration, 
International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th 
Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone 
(202) 482-3964 or (202) 482-1386, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Applicable Statute

    Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the statute are 
references to the provisions of the Tariff Act of 1930 (the Act), as 
amended by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) effective January 1, 
1995. In addition, unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the 
Department's regulations are codified at 19 CFR part 351 (2000).

Background

    On September 14, 2000, the Department published the preliminary 
results of the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on 
sulfanilic acid. See Sulfanilic Acid from the People's Republic of 
China; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review, 
65 FR 55508 (September 14, 2000).
    On September 18, 2000, the Department issued the verification 
report as a result of our on-site inspection of relevant sales and 
financial records. Zhenxing, Yude, and PHT International (hereafter, 
respondents) submitted comments on the verification report on September 
28, 2000, and all interested parties filed case briefs with the 
Department on October 16, 2000. In a letter to respondents dated 
November 7, 2000, the Department determined that the respondents' 
comments on the verification report and their case brief contained 
certain untimely filed new factual information and argument based upon 
that information, and requested that they correct and re-file these 
submissions. On November 9, 2000, respondents filed a request to the 
Department to consider retaining some of the information contained in 
the aforementioned submissions because they concerned events that 
transpired at verification that they claimed disputed certain 
statements made in the verification report. The Department granted this 
request, and on November 15, 2000, issued a revised corrections list to 
respondents and a schedule for submission of respondents' corrected 
case briefs and rebuttal briefs from all interested parties. 
Respondents submitted their corrected comments on the verification 
report and their revised case brief on November 20, 2000, in accordance 
with the Department's decision in this matter. All interested parties 
submitted rebuttal briefs to the Department on November 27, 2000.
    Respondents submitted publicly available information to value 
factors of production on October 4, 2000. In addition, they filed a 
timely request for a hearing on October 17, 2000, and a hearing was 
held at the Department on December 13, 2000. The hearing was attended 
by both respondents and petitioner. Respondents also requested in a 
letter to the Department dated November 1, 2000, the right to revise 
their case brief in order to address the impact of the new law, H.R. 
4461. The Department addressed this request in its aforementioned 
November 15, 2000, letter to respondents.
    On January 4, 2001, the Department published a notice to extend the 
time limit for the final results of review from January 12, 2001 to 
March 13, 2001. See Sulfanilic Acid from the People's Republic of 
China: Extension of Time Limit for Final Results of Antidumping Duty, 
66 FR 1952 (January 10, 2001).
    The Department issued a preliminary determination to treat Zhenxing 
and Yude as a single producer for the 1998/1999 administrative review 
on January 9, 2001, and requested comments from interested parties. See 
Department's Collapsing Memorandum dated January 9, 2001. On January 
22, 2001, respondents timely filed comments to this memorandum.
    On December 22, 2000, the Department requested the U.S. Customs 
Service (Customs) to release to us certain documents that it had in its 
possession concerning possible sales of sulfanilic acid from Zhenxing 
to unaffiliated U.S. importers. In response to this request, Customs 
released to the Department on January 26, 2001, information relating to 
the possible sales. On February 2, 2001, the Department placed this 
information on the record of this review via a letter to

[[Page 15838]]

interested parties requesting comments on the documents obtained by 
Customs. Respondents requested an extension of the deadline for the 
filing of comments on these Customs documents in a February 14, 2001, 
letter submitted to the Department. On February 15, 2001, the 
Department denied this extension in a letter issued to respondents. All 
interested parties filed their comments and rebuttals to this Customs 
information on February 16, 2001 and February 21, 2001, respectively. 
On February 20, 2001, petitioner (Nation Ford Chemical Company), 
submitted a letter to the Department claiming that respondents' 
comments to this Customs information erroneously included new factual 
information. The Department addressed this issue in a memorandum to the 
file dated February 22, 2001, by clarifying that the Department is 
accepting respondents' new factual information, and by granting 
petitioner 10 days from the date of its submission to rebut this 
information with any factual information of its own. Accordingly, 
petitioner submitted rebuttal factual information on February 26, 2001.

Scope of the Antidumping Duty Order

    Imports covered by this review are all grades of sulfanilic acid, 
which include technical (or crude) sulfanilic acid, refined (or 
purified) sulfanilic acid and sodium salt of sulfanilic acid.
    Sulfanilic acid is a synthetic organic chemical produced from the 
direct sulfonation of aniline with sulfuric acid. Sulfanilic acid is 
used as a raw material in the production of optical brighteners, food 
colors, specialty dyes, and concrete additives. The principal 
differences between the grades are the undesirable quantities of 
residual aniline and alkali insoluble materials present in the 
sulfanilic acid. All grades are available as dry, free flowing powders.
    Technical sulfanilic acid, classifiable under the subheading 
2921.42.24 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS), contains 96 percent 
minimum sulfanilic acid, 1.0 percent maximum aniline, and 1.0 percent 
maximum alkali insoluble materials. Refined sulfanilic acid, also 
classifiable under the subheading 2921.42.24 of the HTS, contains 98 
percent minimum sulfanilic acid, 0.5 percent maximum aniline and 0.25 
percent maximum alkali insoluble materials.
    Sodium salt (sodium sulfanilate), classifiable under the HTS 
subheading 2921.42.79, is a powder, granular or crystalline material 
which contains 75 percent minimum equivalent sulfanilic acid, 0.5 
percent maximum aniline based on the equivalent sulfanilic acid 
content, and 0.25 percent maximum alkali insoluble materials based on 
the equivalent sulfanilic acid content.
    Although the HTS subheadings are provided for convenience and 
customs purposes, our written description of the scope of this 
proceeding is dispositive.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Tariff Act, we verified 
information provided by the respondents using standard verification 
procedures, including on-site inspection of the facilities and the 
examination of relevant sales and financial records. The results of our 
verification are discussed in the verification report. Specific 
arguments relating to the conduct of the verification are addressed in 
the Department's Memorandum on Respondents' Comments on the 
Verification and Verification Report dated March 13, 2001. Other 
arguments concerning the content of the verification report are 
addressed in the ``Verification Report'' section of the ``Issues and 
Decision Memorandum'' (Decision Memorandum) from Joseph A. Spetrini, 
Deputy Assistant Secretary, Group III, Import Administration, to 
Bernard T. Carreau, fulfilling the duties of Assistant Secretary for 
Import Administration, dated concurrent with this notice. A public 
version of these memoranda is on file in the Central Records Unit 
(CRU), room B-099 of the Main Commerce Building.

Request for Revocation

    In conjunction with respondents' request for a review submitted on 
August 31, 1999, Zhenxing and Yude also requested revocation of the 
antidumping duty order on sulfanilic acid from China with respect to 
their sales of this merchandise. For purposes of these final results, 
we continue to find that they are not eligible for partial revocation 
from the order on sulfanilic acid under 19 CFR 351.222(b)(1)(i), as 
outlined in our analysis published in the preliminary results.

Separate Rates

    To establish whether a company is sufficiently independent to be 
entitled to a separate, company-specific rate, the Department analyzes 
each exporting entity in a non-market economy (NME) country 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). As a result of our 
determination that the responses are not reliable, however (see below), 
the Department is not granting separate rates to those companies and is 
assigning the rate of 85.20 as the PRC country-wide rate, which also 
will apply to Zhenxing and Yude.

Analysis of Comments Received

    As noted above, specific issues and comments submitted by 
interested parties pertaining to the conduct of the verification, and 
in response to certain Customs documents placed on the record of this 
review by the Department, are addressed, respectively, in the 
Department's Memorandum on Respondent's Comments on the Verification 
and Verification Report, and in Memorandum on the Department's Findings 
on Certain Customs Documents. All other issues and comments raised in 
the case and rebuttal briefs, including interested parties' responses 
to the Department's Collapsing Memorandum, are addressed in the 
Decision Memorandum, which is hereby adopted by this notice. A list of 
issues which parties have raised and to which we have responded, all of 
which are in the Decision Memorandum, is attached to this notice as 
Appendix I. Parties can find a complete discussion of all issues raised 
in this review and the corresponding recommendations in this public 
memorandum which is on file in the Department's CRU. In addition, a 
complete version of the Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly on 
the internet at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/frnhome.htm.

Use of Facts Available

    For a discussion of our application of the use of the facts 
otherwise available, see the ``Use of Facts Otherwise Available'' 
section of the preliminary results and the ``Facts Available'' section 
of the Decision Memorandum, both of which are on file in the CRU and 
also available at the Web address shown above.

Final Results of Review

    The Department has not altered its determination from the 
preliminary results to use the rate of 85.20 percent as the adverse 
facts available for the period August 1, 1998 through July 31, 1999 for 
all firms which have not demonstrated that they are entitled to 
separate rates, including Zhenxing and Yude.
    The Department shall determine, and Customs shall assess, 
antidumping duties on all appropriate entries. We will direct Customs 
to assess the resulting percentage margin against the

[[Page 15839]]

entered Customs values for the subject merchandise on each entry of 
that importer under the relevant order during the review period.

Cash Deposit Requirements

    The following deposit requirements will be effective upon 
publication of this notice of final results of administrative review 
for all shipments of sulfanilic acid from the PRC 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: the cash deposit rate 
for all PRC exporters and non-PRC exporters of subject merchandise from 
the PRC will be 85.20 percent (i.e., the PRC country-wide rate). These 
deposit requirements shall remain in effect until publication of the 
final results of the next administrative review.
    This notice also serves as a final reminder to importers of their 
responsibility under 19 CFR 351.402(f)(2) 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 notice serves as a reminder to parties subject to 
administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility 
concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under 
APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. Timely written notification of 
return/destruction of APO materials or conversion to judicial 
protective order is hereby requested. Failure to comply with the 
regulations and the terms of an APO is a sanctionable violation.
    This administrative review is issued and published in accordance 
with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(1) 
and 19 U.S.C. 1677f(i)(1)).

    Dated: March 13, 2001.
Timothy J. Hauser,
Acting Under Secretary for International Trade.

Appendix I: Issues Discussed in Decision Memorandum

    (See web address http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn/frnhome.htm)

Comments and Responses

1. Facts Available
2. Use of Factual Information from the U.S. Customs Service
3. Verification Outline and Procedure
4. Verification Report/Alleged Untrue Statements
5. Verification Report/Use of the Term ``Unreported'' Sales
6. Verification Report/Inability to Reconcile Sales
7. Verification Report/Issuing of Verification Report
8. Verification Comments are Untimely Factual Information
9. Knowledge Test
10. Collapsing
11. Surrogate Values

[FR Doc. 01-6912 Filed 3-20-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P