[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 193 (Wednesday, October 7, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51555-51556]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-24231]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration


Expected Non-Market Economy Wages: Request for Comments on 2009 
Calculation

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

ACTION: Request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (``Department''') has a 
longstanding practice of calculating expected non-market economy 
(``NME'') wages for use as the surrogate value for direct labor in 
antidumping proceedings involving NME countries. These expected NME 
wages are calculated annually in accordance with the Department's 
regulations, see 19 CFR 351.408(c)(3). This notice constitutes the 
Department's 2009 expected NME wages, which were calculated from 2007 
data made available in 2009 according to the Department's revised 
methodology described in the Federal Register notice entitled 
Antidumping Methodologies: Market Economy Inputs, Expected Non-Market 
Economy Wages, Duty Drawback; and Request for Comments, 71 FR 61716, 
Oct. 19, 2006 (hereafter, the Antidumping Methodologies notice). The 
Department further provides the public with an opportunity to comment 
on potential clerical errors in the calculation. Id.

DATES: Any comments must be submitted no later than 10 days after 
publication of this notice.

ADDRESSES: Written comments (original and six copies) should be sent to 
Ronald Lorentzen, Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, Central Records Unit, Room 1870, 14th 
Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bobby Wong, Senior International Trade 
Analyst, China/NME Group, Import Administration, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20230, (202) 482-0409.

Background

    The Department's regulations generally describe the methodology by 
which the Department calculates expected NME wages. For labor, the 
Secretary will use regression-based wage rates reflective of the 
observed relationship between wages and national income in market 
economy countries. The Secretary will calculate the wage rate to be 
applied in non-market economy proceedings each year.\1\ The calculation 
will be based on current data, and will be made available to the 
public. See 19 CFR 351.408(c)(3).
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    \1\ Pursuant to the Antidumping Methodologies Notice, 71 FR 
61722, the Department intends to publish the annual revisions of the 
expected NME wage rates on its Web site in the fall. Since there is 
no fixed deadline for the submission of the relevant country data to 
the World Bank and ILO, the Department cannot specify a date certain 
by which the revision will be published. We can say, however, that 
because not all countries submit their data at the same time and 
because the Department must wait until all relevant data is 
submitted, publication of the revision will likely take place in 
late fall.
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    The Department's expected NME wages are calculated each year in two 
steps. First, the relationship between hourly wage rates (obtained from 
the International Labour Organization's (``ILO'') Yearbook of Labour 
Statistics) and per-capita gross national income (``GNI'') (obtained 
from the World Bank) is estimated using ordinary least squares 
(``OLS'') regression analysis. Second, the GNI of each of the countries 
designated by the Department to be an NME is applied to the regression, 
which yields an expected hourly wage rate for each NME.
    The Department published a notice in the Federal Register on 
October 19, 2006, which detailed its revised methodology for 
calculating expected NME wages in antidumping proceedings involving NME 
countries. See the Antidumping Methodologies notice. In that notice, 
the Department stated that ``{e{time} ach year, the Department's annual 
calculation will be subject to public notice prior to the adoption of 
the resulting expected NME wage rates for use in antidumping 
proceedings. Comment will be requested only with regard to potential 
clerical errors in the Department's calculation.'' Antidumping 
Methodology notice, 71 FR 61722. This notice constitutes the 
Department's 2009 calculation of expected NME wages in Attachment 1, 
which were calculated from 2007 data made available in 2009 according 
to the Department's revised methodology described in the Antidumping 
Methodologies notice. The Department is requesting public comment only 
on the potential clerical errors in the calculation. Comments with 
regard to the methodology were addressed in the Antidumping 
Methodologies notice and will not be considered.
    In order to facilitate a full opportunity for comment, and because 
the underlying data are voluminous, the preliminary results and 
underlying data for the preliminary 2009 expected NME wages calculation 
have been posted on the Import Administration Web site (http://www.ia.ita.doc.gov). This preliminary calculation will not be used for 
antidumping purposes until it has been finalized by the Department 
following the public comment period.

Submission of Comments

    Persons wishing to comment on clerical errors in the Department's 
2009 calculation of expected NME wages presented in Attachment 1 should 
file

[[Page 51556]]

one signed original and six copies of each set of comments by the date 
specified above. The Department will consider all comments regarding 
clerical errors received before the close of the comment period. 
Comments received after the end of the comment period will be 
considered, if possible, but their consideration cannot be assured. The 
Department will not accept comments accompanied by a request that a 
part or all of the material be treated confidentially because of its 
business proprietary nature or for any other reason. The Department 
will return such comments and materials to the persons submitting the 
comments and will not consider them. All comments responding to this 
notice will be a matter of public record and will be available for 
inspection and copying at Import Administration's Central Records Unit, 
Room 1117. The Department requires that comments be submitted in 
written form. The Department recommends submission of comments in 
electronic form to accompany the required paper copies. Comments filed 
in electronic form should be submitted either by e-mail to the 
Webmaster below, or on CD-ROM, as comments submitted on diskettes are 
likely to be damaged by postal radiation treatment. Comments received 
in electronic form will be made available to the public in Portable 
Document Format (``PDF'') on the Internet at the Import Administration 
Web site at the following address: http://www.ia.ita.doc.gov. Any 
questions concerning file formatting, document conversion, access on 
the Internet, or other electronic filing issues should be addressed to 
Andrew Lee Beller, Import Administration Webmaster, at (202) 482-0866, 
e-mail address: [email protected].

    Dated: September 29, 2009.
Ronald K. Lorentzen,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

Attachment 1--2009 Calculation of Expected NME Wages

    Following the criteria and methodology described in the Antidumping 
Methodologies notice, and using the data available to the Department as 
of September 22, 2009, the Department used 2006 and 2007 data in 
Chapter 5B of the International Labour Statistics (``ILO'') that had 
available and suitable ``earnings'' data for 88 entities: Albania, 
Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, 
Belgium, Bermuda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria,\2\ 
Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, 
Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, 
Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Hong 
Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, 
Japan, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, 
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, 
Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, 
Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, 
Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, 
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, 
Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Virgin Islands (U.S.), and West 
Bank and Gaza Strip.
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    \2\ On August 11, 2008, the United Nations Department of 
Economic and Social Affairs published the 4th revision of the 
International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic 
Activities (``ISIC classification''). Therefore, with respect to the 
data selection criteria established in the Antidumping Methodologies 
Notice, where more than one record in the ILO database meet the 
requirements, the Department has prioritized the most recent update 
of the ISIC classification, ISIC Rev.4-C--manufacturing, over 
previous revisions. See Antidumping Methodologies Notice, 71 FR 
61722.
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    Within the earnings data set above, for 2006 and 2007, Armenia, 
Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic (Kyrgyzstan), and Moldova, 
were not included in the regression because they are designated as NME 
countries by the Department.\3\
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    \3\ The Department considers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, The 
People's Republic of China, Georgia, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, 
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam to be non-market economies.
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    Of the remaining 82 entities, for the reasons further discussed 
below, 16 additional entities were excluded from the regression data 
set.
    The Department notes that the earnings data from Switzerland and 
Paraguay appear to be aberrant, and may be the result of a 
typographical or reporting error by the ILO Web site, and has thus been 
excluded from the regression data set.
    There were no 2007 GNI data available for Andorra, Bahrain, 
Bermuda, Cuba, Gibraltar, Guam, Isle of Man, Jersey, Puerto Rico, 
Qatar, Taiwan, Virgin Islands (U.S.), and West Bank and Gaza Strip.
    The Department also excluded Bosnia & Herzegovina, as the IFS CPI 
datum was unavailable to inflate the entities' reported 2006 ILO 
earnings.
    There were no further entities eliminated based on the availability 
of the 2006 and 2007 earnings, CPI, GNI, or exchange rate data for the 
remaining 66 entities.
    Accordingly, the Department ran its preliminary 2009 expected NME 
wage regression on the following 66 countries: Albania, Argentina, 
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, 
Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, 
El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, 
Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, 
Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, 
Macedonia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, New Zealand, 
Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, 
Romania, Russia, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovak Republic, 
Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ukraine, United 
Kingdom, and the United States.
    Following the data compilation and regression methodology described 
in the Antidumping Methodologies notice, and using GNI and wage data 
for Base Year 2007, the regression results are: Expected Wages = 
0.0004265(GNI)--0.2616639.

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                                                                Expected
                                                    2007 GNI     wages
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Armenia.........................................     2,580.00       1.36
Azerbaijan......................................     2,710.00       1.42
Belarus.........................................     4,240.00       2.07
China (PRC).....................................     2,360.00       1.27
Georgia.........................................     2,090.00       1.15
Kyrgyz Republic.................................       610.00       0.52
Moldova.........................................     1,130.00       0.74
Tajikistan......................................       460.00       0.46
Uzbekistan......................................       730.00       0.57
Vietnam.........................................       770.00       0.59
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    The World Bank did not publish a GNI for Turkmenistan.
    As stated above, the full preliminary results and underlying data 
for the 2009 expected NME wages calculation have been posted on the 
Import Administration Web site (http://ia.ita.doc.gov).

[FR Doc. E9-24231 Filed 10-6-09; 8:45 am]
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