[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 4, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 328-329]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-8276]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-475-823]


Stainless Steel Plate in Coils from Italy: Initiation of 
Countervailing Duty Changed Circumstances Review and Notice of 
Consideration of Revocation of Order

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: On December 2, 2005, Allegheny Ludlum Corporation and AK Steel 
Corporation filed a request for a countervailing duty changed 
circumstances review. Specifically, they requested that the Department 
of Commerce revoke the countervailing duty order on stainless steel 
plate in coils from Italy. In response, the Department of Commerce is 
initiating a changed circumstances review of the countervailing duty 
order on stainless steel plate in coils from Italy. Interested parties 
are invited to comment on this notice of initiation.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 4, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brandon Farlander or Audrey R. Twyman, 
AD/CVD Operations, Office 1, Import Administration, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone (202) 482-
0182 and (202) 482-3534, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On May 11, 1999, the Department of Commerce (the ``Department'') 
published a countervailing duty order on stainless steel plate in coils 
(``SSPC'') from Italy. See Notice of Amended Final Determinations: 
Stainless Steel Plate in Coils from Belgium and South Africa; and 
Notice of Countervailing Duty Orders: Stainless Steel Plate in Coils 
from Belgium, Italy and South Africa, 64 FR 25288 (May 11, 1999). The 
order was amended on March 11, 2003. See Notice of Amended 
Countervailing Duty Orders; Certain Stainless Steel Plate in Coils from 
Belgium, Italy, and South Africa, 68 FR 11524 (March 11, 2003). The 
amended order was corrected on April 24, 2003. See Certain Stainless 
Steel Plate in Coils from Belgium, Italy, and South Africa; Notice of 
Correction to the Amended Countervailing Duty Orders, 68 FR 20115 
(April 24, 2003).
    On December 2, 2005, the Department received a request from 
Allegheny Ludlum Corporation and AK Steel Corporation, some of the 
petitioners in the original investigation (``petitioners''), that the 
Department initiate a changed circumstances review for purposes of 
revoking the countervailing duty (``CVD'') order. Also, it is the 
petitioners' understanding that, upon revocation of the CVD order, the 
Department will fully refund any countervailing duties deposited 
pursuant to the order on unliquidated entries. The petitioners state 
that they are no longer interested in maintaining the countervailing 
duty order or in the imposition of CVD duties on the subject 
merchandise.

Scope of the Order

    The product covered by this order is certain stainless steel plate 
in coils. Stainless steel is an alloy steel containing, by weight, 1.2 
percent or less of carbon and 10.5 percent or more of chromium, with or 
without other elements. The subject plate products are flat-rolled 
products, 254 mm or over in width and 4.75 mm or more in thickness, in 
coils, and annealed or otherwise heat treated and pickled or otherwise 
descaled. The subject plate may also be further processed (e.g., cold-
rolled, polished, etc.) provided that it maintains the specified 
dimensions of plate following such processing. Excluded from the scope 
of this order are the following: (1) Plate not in coils, (2) plate that 
is not annealed or otherwise heat treated and pickled or otherwise 
descaled, (3) sheet and strip, and (4) flat bars. The merchandise 
subject to this order is currently classifiable in the Harmonized 
Tariff Schedule of the United States (``HTSUS'') at subheadings: 
7219.11.00.30, 7219.11.00.60, 7219.12.00.06, 7219.12.00.21, 
7219.12.00.26, 7219.12.00.51, 7219.12.00.56, 7219.12.00.66, 
7219.12.00.71, 7219.12.00.81, 7219.31.00.10, 7219.90.00.10, 
7219.90.00.20, 7219.90.00.25, 7219.90.00.60, 7219.90.00.80, 
7220.11.00.00, 7220.20.10.10, 7220.20.10.15, 7220.20.10.60, 
7220.20.10.80, 7220.20.60.05, 7220.20.60.10, 7220.20.60.15, 
7220.20.60.60, 7220.20.60.80, 7220.90.00.10, 7220.90.00.15, 
7220.90.00.60, and 7220.90.00.80. Although the HTSUS subheadings are 
provided for convenience and Customs purposes, the written description 
of the merchandise subject to this order is dispositive.

Initiation of Changed Circumstances Review

    Section 751(d)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the 
``Act''), and 19 CFR 351.222(g), provide that the Department may revoke 
an antidumping or countervailing duty order, in whole or in part, after 
conducting a changed circumstances review pursuant to section 751(b) of 
the Act and concluding from the available information that changed 
circumstances exist sufficient to warrant revocation or termination. 
The Department may conclude that changed circumstances sufficient to 
warrant revocation (in whole or in part) exist when producers 
accounting for substantially all of the production of the domestic like 
product to which the order pertains have expressed a lack of

[[Page 329]]

interest in the order, in whole or in part. See section 782(h)(2) of 
the Act and section 351.222(g)(1) of the Department's regulations.
    The petitioners state that they are producers of SSPC but do not 
identify the percentage of production of the domestic like product they 
represent. At present, the Department has no information on the record 
that the other known domestic producers of SSPC have no interest in 
maintaining the countervailing duty order with respect to the subject 
merchandise imported from Italy. Therefore, the Department does not 
have information on the record of this changed circumstances review 
that the petitioners account for substantially all, or at least 85 
percent, of the production of the domestic like product. See Certain 
Tin Mill Products From Japan: Final Results of Changed Circumstances 
Review, 66 FR 52109 (October 12, 2001); see also 19 CFR 351.208(c). 
Accordingly, we are not combining this initiation with a preliminary 
determination, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.221(c)(3)(ii). This notice of 
initiation will accord all interested parties an opportunity to address 
this proposed revocation.
    Pursuant to section 751(b)(1) of the Act, the Department will 
conduct a changed circumstances review upon receipt of information 
concerning, or a request from an interested party of, a countervailing 
duty order which shows changed circumstances sufficient to warrant a 
review of the order. Therefore, in accordance with section 751(b)(1) of 
the Act, we are initiating a changed circumstances review based upon 
the request made by the petitioners.
    If, as a result of this review, we revoke the order, we intend to 
instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') to liquidate 
without regard to applicable countervailing duties, and refund any 
estimated countervailing duties collected on all unliquidated entries 
of the merchandise subject to the order, as described above under the 
``Scope of the Order'' section, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, 
for consumption on or after September 4, 1998, i.e., the publication 
date of the Department's preliminary determination. See Preliminary 
Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Alignment of Final 
Countervailing Duty Determination With Final Antidumping Duty 
Determination: Stainless Steel Plate in Coils from Italy, 63 FR 47246 
(September 4, 1998). We will also instruct CBP to pay interest on such 
refunds with respect to the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn 
from warehouse, for consumption on or after May 11, 1999, the date of 
publication of the countervailing duty order, in accordance with 
section 778 of the Act. The current requirement for a cash deposit of 
estimated countervailing duties on the subject merchandise will 
continue unless, and until, we publish a final determination to revoke 
the countervailing duty order on SSPC from Italy.

Public Comment

    Interested parties are invited to comment on the initiation of this 
changed circumstances review. Parties who submit argument in this 
proceeding are requested to submit with the argument (1) a statement of 
the issue, and (2) a brief summary of the argument. All written 
comments may be submitted by interested parties not later than 14 days 
after the date of publication of this notice in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.303, and shall be served on all interested parties on the 
Department's service list.
    The Department will publish in the Federal Register a notice of 
preliminary results of changed circumstances review, in accordance with 
19 CFR 351.221(c)(3), which will set forth the factual and legal 
conclusions upon which our preliminary results are based, and a 
description of any action proposed based on those results.
    This notice is published in accordance with section 751(b)(1) of 
the Act and sections 351.216 and 351.222 of the Department's 
regulations.

    Dated: December 23, 2005.
Stephen J. Claeys,
Acting Assistant Secretaryfor Import Administration.
[FR Doc. E5-8276 Filed 1-3-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-S