[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 192 (Thursday, October 3, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62138-62140]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-24802]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-357-816]


Notice of Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value 
and Negative Final Determination of Critical Circumstances: Certain 
Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products From Argentina

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

ACTION: Notice of final determination of sales at less than fair value 
and negative final determination of critical circumstances.

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SUMMARY: We determine that certain cold-rolled carbon steel flat 
products from Argentina are being, or are likely to be, sold in the 
United States at less than fair value, as provided in section 731 of 
the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended. In addition, we determine that 
critical circumstances do not exist for import of cold-rolled carbon 
steel flat products from Argentina.
    We gave interested parties an opportunity to comment on the 
preliminary determination. Based on our analysis of the comments 
received, we have made certain changes for the final determination.

EFFECTIVE DATE: October 3, 2002.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dave Dirstine, Import Administration, 
International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th 
Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: 
(202) 482-4033.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The 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. In addition, unless otherwise 
indicated, all citations to the Department of Commerce (Department's) 
regulations are to the regulations codified at 19 CFR part 351 (April 
2001).

Background

    On May 9, 2002, the Department published its preliminary 
determination in the above-captioned antidumping duty investigation. 
See Notice of Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value, Postponement of Final Determination and Negative Preliminary 
Determination of Critical Circumstances: Certain Cold-Rolled Carbon 
Steel Flat Products From Argentina, 67 FR 31181 (May 9, 2002) 
(Preliminary Determination). See also Notice of Initiation of 
Antidumping Duty Investigations: Certain Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat 
Products From Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, 
India, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the People's 
Republic of China, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, 
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela, 66 FR 54198 (October 26, 2001) 
(Initiation Notice).
    Since the Preliminary Determination, the following events have 
occurred. On June 18, 2002, and July 29, 2002, the Department conducted 
a home-market sales verification and a U.S. sales verification, 
respectively, using standard verification procedures. Our verification 
results are outlined in the public versions of the verification reports 
(see home-market verification report dated July 26, 2002, and U.S. 
sales verification report from analysts to file, dated August 13, 
2002).
    We gave interested parties an opportunity to comment on the 
Preliminary Determination. On August 26, 2002, the petitioners \1\ 
submitted their case brief. Siderar S.A.I.C.

[[Page 62139]]

(Siderar), respondent in this investigation, also submitted its case 
brief on August 26, 2002. The petitioners and Siderar submitted their 
rebuttal briefs on September 3, 2002. Siderar did not request a 
hearing. The petitioners submitted a request for a hearing on June 10, 
2002, but withdrew their request on September 4, 2002.
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    \1\ The petitioners in the concurrent antidumping duty 
investigations are Bethlehem Steel Corporation, LTV Steel Company, 
National Steel Corporation, Nucor Corporation, Steel Dynamics, Inc., 
United States Steel LLC, WCI Steel, Inc., and Weirton Steel 
Corporation. Weirton Steel Corporation is not a petitioner in the 
Netherlands case. Effective January 1, 2002, the party previously 
known as ``United States Steel LLC'' changed its name to ``United 
States Steel Corporation.''
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    With respect to scope, in the preliminary LTFV determinations in 
this and the companion cold-rolled steel investigations, the Department 
preliminarily excluded certain porcelain enameling steel from the scope 
of these investigations. See Scope Appendix to the Notice of 
Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain 
Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Argentina, 67 FR 31181 (May 
9, 2002) (Scope Appendix--Argentina Preliminary LTFV Determination). On 
June 13, 2002, we issued a preliminary decision on the remaining 75 
scope-exclusion requests filed in a number of the on-going cold-rolled 
steel investigations (see the June 13, 2002, memorandum regarding 
``Preliminary Scope Rulings in the Antidumping Investigations on 
Certain Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Argentina, 
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea, the 
Netherlands, New Zealand, the People's Republic of China, the Russian 
Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and 
Venezuela, and in the Countervailing Duty Investigations of Certain 
Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Argentina, Brazil, France, 
and Korea'' (Preliminary Scope Rulings), which is on file in the 
Department's Central Records Unit (CRU), room B-099 of the main 
Department building). We gave parties until June 20, 2002, to comment 
on the preliminary scope rulings and until June 27, 2002, to submit 
rebuttal comments. We received comments and/or rebuttal comments from 
the petitioners and respondents from various countries subject to these 
investigations of cold-rolled steel. In addition, on June 13, 2002, 
North American Metals Company (an interested party in the Japan 
proceeding) filed a request that the Department issue a ``correction'' 
for an already-excluded product. On July 8, 2002, the petitioners 
objected to this request.
    At the request of multiple respondents, the Department held a 
public hearing with respect to the Preliminary Scope Rulings on July 1, 
2002. The Department's final decisions on the scope-exclusion requests 
are addressed in the Scope of Investigation section below.

Scope of Investigation

    For purposes of this investigation, the products covered are 
certain cold-rolled (cold-reduced) flat-rolled carbon-quality steel 
products. A full description of the scope of this investigation is 
contained in the Scope Appendix attached to the Notice of Correction to 
Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain Cold-
Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Australia, 67 FR 52934 (Aug. 14, 
2002). For a complete discussion of the comments received on the 
Preliminary Scope Rulings, see the memorandum regarding ``Issues and 
Decision Memorandum for the Final Scope Rulings in the Antidumping Duty 
Investigations on Certain Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from 
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Japan, 
Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the People's Republic of China, 
the Russian Federation, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, 
Turkey, and Venezuela, and in the Countervailing Duty Investigations of 
Certain Cold-Rolled Carbon Steel Flat Products from Argentina, Brazil, 
France, and Korea,'' dated July 10, 2002, which is on file in the CRU.

Critical Circumstances

    In letters filed on December 7, 2001, and January 14, 2002, the 
petitioners alleged that there is a reasonable basis to believe or 
suspect that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of 
cold-rolled steel from Argentina and other countries. On May 9, 2002, 
the Department published in the Federal Register its preliminary 
determination that critical circumstances do not exist for imports of 
cold-rolled steel from Argentina. See Preliminary Determination and 
critical-circumstances memorandum from Richard W. Moreland to Faryar 
Shirzad, dated April 26, 2002 (Preliminary Negative Determinations of 
Critical Circumstances--Argentina). A public version of this memorandum 
is on file in the CRU.
    We received no comments from the petitioners or the respondent 
regarding our preliminary finding that critical circumstances do not 
exist for imports of cold-rolled steel from Argentina. We have not 
changed our determination and continue to find that critical 
circumstances do not exist for imports of cold-rolled steel from 
Argentina.

Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by parties to 
this investigation are addressed in the ``Issues and Decision 
Memorandum'' (Decision Memo) from Richard W. Moreland, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary, to Faryar Shirzad, Assistant Secretary, dated September 23, 
2002, which is hereby adopted by this notice. A list of the issues 
which parties have raised and to which we have responded, all of which 
are in the Decision Memo, is attached to this notice as an Appendix. 
This Decision Memo, which is a public document, is on file in the CRU 
and is accessible on the Web at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/frn. The paper 
copy and electronic version of the Decision Memo are identical in 
content.

Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Our calculations followed the methodologies described in the 
Preliminary Determination, except as noted below, and in the September 
23, 2002, Decision Memo and final determination analysis memorandum.
    We obtained missing unreported slitting-cost information at 
verification and have applied partial adverse facts available as 
advocated by the petitioners. See our response to Comment 2 of the 
Decision Memo.
    We used depreciation adjustment data presented by the respondent to 
correct minor errors in its response on the first day of verification 
and we have not applied partial adverse facts available as asserted by 
the petitioners. See our response to Comment 3 of the Decision Memo.
    We revised the interest expense and general and administrative 
expenses based on information we obtained at verification. See our 
response to Comment 4 of the Decision Memo.
    For the Preliminary Determination we found one level of trade in 
the U.S. market and one level of trade in the home market. For this 
final determination, we found that there were two home-market levels of 
trade--a distributor level of trade and an end-user (or original 
equipment manufacturer) level of trade. We continue to find one level 
of trade in the U.S. market. In addition, we made a level-of-trade 
adjustment to normal value for export-price sales of one model for 
which there were no sales on the same level of trade in the home 
market. See our response to Comment 5 of the Decision Memo.

Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, we are 
directing the Customs Service (Customs) to continue to suspend 
liquidation of all imports of subject merchandise that are entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse,

[[Page 62140]]

for consumption on or after May 9, 2002, the date of publication of the 
Preliminary Determination in the Federal Register. Customs shall 
continue to require a cash deposit or the posting of a bond equal to 
the weighted-average amount by which the normal value exceeds the U.S. 
price, as indicated in the chart below. These suspension-of-liquidation 
instructions will remain in effect until further notice. The weighted-
average dumping margins are as follows:\2\
    \2\ As Siderar was the only respondent in this investigation, we 
used Siderar's margin as the all-others rate.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Weighted-
                                                               average
                   Exporter/manufacturer                        margin
                                                              percentage
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Siderar....................................................        27.18
All Others.................................................    \2\ 27.18
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we have notified the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of our determination. As our final 
determination is affirmative, the ITC will determine within 45 days 
whether these imports are causing material injury, or threat of 
material injury, to an industry in the United States. If the ITC 
determines that material injury, or threat of injury does not exist, 
the proceeding will be terminated and all securities posted will be 
refunded or cancelled. If the ITC determines that such injury does 
exist, the Department will issue an antidumping duty order.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Order (APO)

    This notice serves as a reminder to parties subject to APO of their 
responsibility concerning the disposition of proprietary information 
disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. Timely 
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 determination is published pursuant to sections 735(d) and 
777(i)(1) of the Act.

    Dated: September 23, 2002.
Faryar Shirzad,
Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

Appendix--Comments and Responses

1. Indirect Tax Rebates (Reintegro)
2. Missing Production Costs at One Plant
3. Failure to Provide Depreciation Costs
4. Revision of Interest Expenses and General and Administrative 
(G&A) Costs
5. Level of Trade

[FR Doc. 02-24802 Filed 10-2-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P