[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 235 (Wednesday, December 9, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65092-65093]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-29357]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration


2009 Calculation of Expected Non-Market Economy Wages

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

ACTION: Finalization and Effective Date of 2009 Expected Non-Market 
Economy Wage Calculation.

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SUMMARY: On October 7, 2009, the Department of Commerce 
(``Department'') published the preliminary calculation of the 2009 
expected non-market economy (``NME'') wages, and provided the public 
with an opportunity to comment on potential clerical errors. See 
Expected Non-Market Economy Wages: Request for Comments on 2009 
Calculation, 74 FR 51555 (October 7, 2009) (``2009 preliminary 
calculation''). The 2009 calculation was based on 2007 data and the 
methodology described in the Antidumping Methodologies: Market Economy 
Inputs, Expected Non-Market Economy Wages, Duty Drawback; and Request 
for Comments, 71 FR 61716, October 19, 2006 (``Antidumping 
Methodologies Notice''). Subsequently, the Department received comments 
from King & Spalding LLP on behalf of U.S. domestic industry 
(``domestic industry'') regarding the Department's 2009 preliminary 
calculation, as further discussed below. The Department received no 
other comments. This notice constitutes the Department's announcement 
of the finalization and effective date of the 2009 calculation.

DATES: These expected NME wage rates are finalized on the date of 
publication of this notice in the Federal Register and will be in 
effect for all antidumping proceedings for which the Department's final 
decision is due after the publication of this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Bobby Wong, International Trade 
Analyst, Operations Office IX, or Christopher Mutz, Import Policy 
Analyst, Office of Policy, Import Administration, U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20230; telephone: (202) 482-0409 and (202) 482-0235, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Domestic industry claims that the Department 
committed several clerical errors in its calculation of the surrogate 
wage rate, which should be correct for the final calculation.
    Domestic industry claims that the Department erred by applying 
International Labour Statistics (``ILO'') ``wages'' data rather than 
``earnings'' data of five countries. Domestic industry cites the 
Antidumping Methodologies Notice, which specifies that the Department 
will only use reported earnings data, and should therefore exclude from 
the dataset countries for which there is no available earnings data, 
including Honduras, Indonesia, Peru, and the Philippines. However, 
domestic industry claims that, while the Department erred by applying 
wages data for Hong Kong, the ILO also reported suitable Hong Kong 
earnings data, and should therefore revise the dataset to include the 
Hong Kong earnings data rather than wages data.
    Also, domestic industry claims that the Department erred by 
selecting 2006 ILO data for Germany over base year 2007 data. Domestic 
industry asserts that the Antidumping Methodologies Notice specifies 
that the Department

[[Page 65093]]

shall choose base year data over prior year data.
    Moreover, domestic industry also states that, for countries in 
which the Department relied on prior year 2006 data, the Department 
erred by applying the 2006 exchange rate to the earnings data prior to 
inflating using the International Financial Statistics (``IFS'') 
published consumer price index (``CPI''). Domestic industry claims that 
the Antidumping Methodologies Notice specifies that the Department 
shall first inflate using CPI and subsequently apply the base year 
exchange rate to convert the foreign currency into U.S. dollars using 
the reported 2007 IFS exchange rate. Moreover, in applying the exchange 
rate, domestic industry asserts that the Department should consistently 
apply the reported six-digit exchange rate. Furthermore, domestic 
industry notes that, because the IMF did not provide a 2007 Egyptian 
period average exchange rate for Egypt, the Department should exclude 
the country from the dataset.
    Lastly, domestic industry notes that, subsequent to the data 
available to the Department for the 2009 preliminary calculation, the 
World Bank (World Development Indicators) published a corrected gross 
national income (``GNI'') for the People's Republic of China (``PRC''), 
and argues that the Department should apply the corrected value in 
calculating the expected 2009 wage rate for the PRC.

Department's Position

    With respect to the Department's criteria to use only earnings 
data, the Department agrees with domestic industry that the calculation 
inappropriately included wages data in the regression dataset. The 
Antidumping Methodologies Notice specifies that the Department will 
only use data that is reported as ``earnings'' by the ILO. See 
Antidumping Methodologies Notice, at 61721-22. Therefore, for the final 
2009 wage rate recalculation, the Department has excluded Honduras, 
Indonesia, Peru, and the Philippines from the regression dataset, and 
applied the appropriate earnings data for Hong Kong.
    With respect to the 2006 ILO data for Germany, the Department 
agrees with domestic industry that it erred in selecting 2006 ILO data 
over base year data. The Antidumping Methodologies Notice states that, 
if more than one record exists which meets the prescribed data 
requirements, the Department will choose the data point from the base 
year over data from previous years. See Antidumping Methodologies 
Notice, at 61722. Therefore, for the final 2009 wage rate 
recalculation, the Department has revised the dataset to include the 
2007 ILO wages data for Germany.
    The Department also agrees with domestic industry that the 
Department erred by converting foreign denominated 2006 earnings data 
using the 2006 IFS exchange rate prior to applying the CPI inflator. 
The Antidumping Methodologies Notice states that data meeting the 
Department's selection requirements shall be adjusted using the CPI 
inflator prior to conversion to U.S. dollars using the base year 
exchange rate. See Antidumping Methodologies Notice, at 61723. 
Therefore, for the final 2009 wage rate recalculation, the Department 
has applied the sequence as described in the Antidumping Methodologies 
Notice. The Department also applied the full six-digit exchange rate 
for the base year as reported by the IFS. Furthermore, the Department 
has excluded Egypt from the regression dataset since the period average 
exchange rate for Egypt in 2007 was not available from IFS.
    With respect to the corrected 2007 PRC GNI data published by the 
World Development Indicators, which was updated subsequent to the 
publication of the 2009 preliminary calculation, the Department finds 
that while the error is not a ministerial error committed by the 
Department in the recalculation, the revision is due to an error by the 
World Bank. See Data & Statistics: Errata at http://go.worldbank.org/UA5M23MPU0. Therefore, for the final 2009 expected wage rate 
recalculation, the Department has revised the per-capital GNI for the 
PRC to reflect the corrected GNI.

Results

    Following the data compilation and regression methodology described 
in the Antidumping Methodologies Notice, and using Gross National 
Income and wage data for 2007, the regression results are: Wage = 
0.328698 + 0.00043957 * GNI. The final expected NME wage rates, as 
calculated with the above mentioned changes, are shown in Attachment 1.

    Dated: December 2, 2009.
Ronald K. Lorentzen,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

                              Attachment 1
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                                                                Expected
                                                    2007  GNI    wages
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Armenia...........................................   2,580.00       1.46
Azerbaijan, Rep. of...............................   2,710.00       1.52
Belarus...........................................   4,240.00       2.19
China, P.R.: Mainland.............................   2,410.00       1.39
Georgia...........................................   2,090.00       1.25
Kyrgyz Republic...................................     610.00       0.60
Moldova...........................................   1,130.00       0.83
Tajikistan........................................     460.00       0.53
Uzbekistan........................................     730.00       0.65
Vietnam...........................................     770.00       0.67
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    The World Bank did not publish a GNI for Turkmenistan.
    The final results and underlying data for the 2009 calculation have 
been posted on the Import Administration Web site at (http://ia.ita.doc.gov).

[FR Doc. E9-29357 Filed 12-8-09; 8:45 am]
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