[Federal Register Volume 80, Number 199 (Thursday, October 15, 2015)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62024-62026]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2015-26264]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-024]


Certain Polyethylene Terephthalate Resin From the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value and Postponement of Final Determination

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.

DATES: Effective Date: October 15, 2015.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (the Department) preliminarily 
determines that certain polyethylene terephthalate resin (PET resin) 
from the People's Republic of China (PRC) is being, or is likely to be, 
sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV), as provided 
in section 733 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). The 
period of investigation (POI) is July 1, 2014, through December 31, 
2014. The estimated margins of sales at LTFV are shown in the 
``Preliminary Determination'' section of this notice. Interested 
parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steve Bezirganian or Tyler Weinhold, 
AD/CVD Operations, Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and 
Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-
1131 or (202) 482-1121, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Department published the notice of initiation of this 
investigation on April 6, 2015.\1\ Pursuant to section 733(c)(1)(A) of 
the Act, the Department postponed this preliminary LTFV determination 
by 50 days until October 6, 2015.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Polyethylene Terephthalate Resin From Canada, 
the People's Republic of China, India, and the Sultanate of Oman: 
Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 80 FR 18376 
(April 6, 2015) (Initiation Notice).
    \2\ See Certain Polyethylene Terephthalate Resin from Canada, 
the People's Republic of China, India, and the Sultanate of Oman: 
Postponement of Preliminary Determinations of Antidumping Duty 
Investigations, 80 FR 45640 (July 31, 2015).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is polyethylene 
terephthalate (PET) resin. The merchandise subject to this 
investigation is properly classified under subheading 3907.60.00.30 of 
the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). Although 
the HTSUS subheading is provided for convenience and customs purposes, 
the written description of the merchandise under investigation is 
dispositive.
    For a full description of the scope of this investigation, see the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum hereby adopted by this notice.\3\ The 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on file 
electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). 
ACCESS is available to registered users at http://access.trade.gov, and 
is available to all parties in the Central Records Unit, room B8024 of 
the main Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete 
version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly 
on the Internet at http://trade.gov/enforcement/frn/. The signed 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum and the electronic version of the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum are identical in content.
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    \3\ See ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Determination 
of the Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain Polyethylene 
Terephthalate Resin from the People's Republic of China from the 
People's Republic of China,'' from Christian Marsh, Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations, to 
Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, 
dated concurrently with this notice (Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum).
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Scope Comments

    The Initiation Notice provided interested parties an opportunity to 
raise issues regarding product coverage (scope). However, no interested 
party provided scope comments.

Methodology

    The Department is conducting this investigation in accordance with 
section 731 of the Act. We calculated export prices and constructed 
export prices in accordance with section 772 of the Act. Because the 
PRC is a non-market economy within the meaning of section 771(18) of 
the Act, normal value (NV) was calculated in accordance with section 
773(c) of the Act. For a full description of the methodology underlying 
our conclusions, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum hereby adopted 
by this notice.

Combination Rates

    In the Initiation Notice,\4\ the Department stated that it would 
calculate combination rates for the respondents that are eligible for a 
separate rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 05.1 describes 
this practice.\5\
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    \4\ See Initiation Notice, 80 FR at 18381-82.
    \5\ See Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1, 
regarding, ``Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination 
Rates in Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy 
Countries,'' (April 5, 2005) (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available on 
the Department's Web site at http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Preliminary Determination

    The Department preliminarily determines that the following 
weighted-average dumping margins exist during the period July 1, 2014, 
through December 31, 2014:

[[Page 62025]]



------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Weighted-
            Exporter                     Producer         average margin
                                                             (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Far Eastern Industries           Far Eastern Industries           125.12
 (Shanghai) Ltd. or Oriental      (Shanghai) Ltd. or
 Industries (Suzhou) Limited.     Oriental Industries
                                  (Suzhou) Limited.
Jiangyin Xingyu New Material     Jiangyin Xingyu New              131.16
 Co., Ltd. or Jiangsu Xingye      Material Co., Ltd. or
 Plastic Co., Ltd. or Jiangyin    Jiangsu Xingye Plastic
 Xingjia Plastic Co., Ltd. or     Co., Ltd. or Jiangyin
 Jiangyin Xingtai New Material    Xingjia Plastic Co.,
 Co., Ltd. or Jiangsu Xingye      Ltd. or Jiangyin
 Polytech Co., Ltd.               Xingtai New Material
                                  Co., Ltd. or Jiangsu
                                  Xingye Polytech Co.,
                                  Ltd.
Dragon Special Resin (XIAMEN)    Hainan Yisheng                   129.42
 Co., Ltd.                        Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
Hainan Yisheng Petrochemical     Zhejiang Wankai New              129.42
 Co., Ltd.                        Materials Co., Ltd.
Shanghai Hengyi Polyester Fiber  Dragon Special Resin             129.42
 Co., Ltd.                        (XIAMEN) Co., Ltd.
Zhejiang Wankai New Materials    Shanghai Hengyi                  129.42
 Co., Ltd.                        Polyester Fiber Co.,
                                  Ltd.
PRC-Wide Entity................  .......................          145.94
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclosure and Public Comment

    We intend to disclose the calculations performed to parties in this 
proceeding within five days after public announcement of the 
preliminary determination in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). Case 
briefs or other written comments may be submitted to the Assistant 
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance no later than seven days after 
the date on which the final verification report is issued in this 
proceeding and rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised in case 
briefs, may be submitted no later than five days after the deadline 
date for case briefs.\6\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), 
parties who submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs in this proceeding 
are encouraged to submit with each argument: (1) A statement of the 
issue; (2) a brief summary of the argument; and (3) a table of 
authorities.
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    \6\ See 19 CFR 351.309; see also 19 CFR 351.303 (for general 
filing requirements).
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    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to 
request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant 
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, 
filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically filed document 
must be received successfully in its entirety by the Department's 
electronic records system, ACCESS, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, within 30 
days after the date of publication of this notice.\7\ Hearing requests 
should contain the party's name, address, and telephone number, the 
number of participants, and a list of the issues parties intend to 
present at the hearing. If a request for a hearing is made, the 
Department intends to hold the hearing at the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW., Washington, DC 
20230, at a time and location to be determined. Prior to the date of 
the hearing, the Department will contact all parties that submitted 
case or rebuttal brief to determine if they wish to participate in the 
hearing. The Department will then distribute a hearing schedule to the 
parties prior to the hearing and only those parties listed on the 
schedule may present issues raised in their briefs.
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    \7\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
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Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, the Department 
will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend 
liquidation of all entries of PET resin from the PRC, as described in 
the ``Scope of the Investigation'' section, entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this 
notice in the Federal Register.
    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.205(d), the Department will instruct CBP to 
require a cash deposit \8\ equal to the weighted-average amount by 
which NV exceeds U.S. price, adjusted where appropriate for export 
subsidies and estimated domestic subsidy pass-through,\9\ as follows: 
(1) The cash deposit rate for the exporter/producer combinations listed 
in the table above will be the rate the Department determines in this 
preliminary determination; (2) for all combinations of PRC exporters/
producers of merchandise under consideration that have not received 
their own separate rate above, the cash-deposit rate will be the cash 
deposit rate established for the PRC-wide entity; and (3) for all non-
PRC exporters of merchandise under consideration which have not 
received their own separate rate above, the cash-deposit rate will be 
the cash deposit rate applicable to the PRC exporter/producer 
combination that supplied that non-PRC exporter.
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    \8\ See Modification of Regulations Regarding the Practice of 
Accepting Bonds During the Provisional Measures Period in 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations, 76 FR 61042 
(October 3, 2011).
    \9\ See sections 772(c)(1)(C) and 777A(f) of the Act, 
respectively. Unlike in administrative reviews, the Department 
calculates the adjustment for export subsidies in investigations not 
in the margin calculation program, but in the cash deposit 
instructions issued to CBP. See, e.g., Notice of Final Determination 
of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, and Negative Determination of 
Critical Circumstances: Certain Lined Paper Products from India, 71 
FR 45012 (August 8, 2006), and accompanying Issues and Decision 
Memorandum at Comment 1.
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    As stated previously, we will adjust cash deposit rates by the 
amount of export subsidies, where appropriate. In the companion CVD 
investigation, Jiangyin Xingyu New Material Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Xingye 
Plastic Co., Ltd., Jiangyin Xingjia Plastic Co., Ltd., Jiangyin Xingtai 
New Material Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Xingye Polytech Co., Ltd. 
(collectively ``Xingyu Group'') received a calculated export subsidy 
rate of 0.80 percent, and, thus, we will offset the calculated rate for 
the Xingyu Group by 0.80 percent. Far Eastern Industries (Shanghai) 
Ltd. and Oriental Industries (Suzhou) Limited (collectively ``FEIS 
Group'') was not a mandatory respondent in the companion CVD 
investigation, so we will offset the calculated rate for the FEIS Group 
by 1.83 percent, the average of the export subsidy rates for the two 
mandatory respondents in the companion CVD investigation. Dragon 
Special Resin (XIAMEN) Co., Ltd., one of the separate rate companies, 
was a mandatory respondent in the companion CVD investigation and 
received a calculated export subsidy rate of 2.85 percent, and, thus, 
we will offset the calculated rate for Dragon by 2.85 percent. The 
other separate rate companies were not mandatory respondents in the 
companion CVD investigation, so we will offset the calculated rate for 
each of them by 1.83 percent, the average of the export subsidy rates 
for the two mandatory respondents in the companion CVD investigation. 
Finally, we are adjusting the cash deposit rate for the PRC-wide entity 
by 0.80 percent,

[[Page 62026]]

the lowest adjustment for any party in the companion CVD 
investigation.\10\
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    \10\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
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    Pursuant to 777A(f) of the Act, we are also adjusting preliminary 
cash deposit rates for estimated domestic subsidy pass-through, where 
appropriate. We will adjust the Xingyu Group's by 0.91 percent, but we 
are not adjusting the rate for the FEIS Group because it failed to 
justify such an adjustment. We are adjusting the rates for each of the 
other separate rate companies by 1.83 percent. Finally, we are not 
adjusting the PRC-wide entity's rate for estimated domestic subsidy 
pass-through.\11\
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    \11\ Id.
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Postponement of Final Determination and Extension of Provisional 
Measures

    Section 735(a)(2) of the Act provides that a final determination 
may be postponed until not later than 135 days after the date of the 
publication of the preliminary determination if, in the event of an 
affirmative preliminary determination by the Department, a request for 
such postponement is made by exporters who account for a significant 
proportion of exports of the subject merchandise, or in the event of a 
negative preliminary determination by the Department, a request for 
such postponement is made by the petitioner. 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2) 
requires that requests by respondents for postponement of a final 
antidumping determination be accompanied by a request for extension of 
provisional measures from a four-month period to a period not more than 
six months in duration.
    In a joint letter dated September 30, 2015, Xingyu, Xingye, Dragon, 
Hainan Yisheng Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Wankai New Materials 
Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Hengyi Polyester Fiber Co., Ltd. requested 
that, in the event of an affirmative preliminary determination in this 
investigation, the Department postpone its final determination by 60 
days (i.e., to 135 days after publication of the preliminary 
determination) pursuant to section 735(a)(2)(A) and 19 CFR 
351.210(b)(2)(ii), and agreed to extend the application of the 
provisional measures prescribed under section 733(d) of the Act and 19 
CFR 351.210(e)(2), from a four-month period to a period not to exceed 
six months.\12\ In a letter dated October 2, 2015, FEIS requested the 
same.\13\
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    \12\ See letter to the Secretary dated September 30, 2015.
    \13\ See letter to the Secretary dated October 2, 2015.
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    In accordance with section 735(a)(2)(A) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(b)(2)(ii) and (e)(2), because (1) our preliminary determination 
is affirmative; (2) the requesting exporters account for a significant 
proportion of exports of the subject merchandise; and (3) no compelling 
reasons for denial exist, we are postponing the final determination and 
extending the provisional measures from a four-month period to a period 
not greater than six months. Accordingly, we will make our final 
determination no later than 135 days after the date of publication of 
this preliminary determination, pursuant to section 735(a)(2) of the 
Act.\14\
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    \14\ See also 19 CFR 351.210(e).
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International Trade Commission (ITC) Notification

    In accordance with section 733(f) of the Act, we will notify the 
ITC of our affirmative preliminary determination of sales at LTFV. 
Because the preliminary determination in this proceeding is 
affirmative, section 735(b)(2) of the Act requires that the ITC make 
its final determination whether the domestic industry in the United 
States is materially injured, or threatened with material injury, by 
reason of imports of PET resin from the PRC before the later of 120 
days after the date of this preliminary determination or 45 days after 
our final determination. Because we are postponing the deadline for our 
final determination to 135 days from the date of publication of this 
preliminary determination, as discussed above, the ITC will make its 
final determination no later than 45 days after our final 
determination.
    This determination is issued and published in accordance with 
sections 733(f) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(c).

    Dated: October 6, 2015.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
    List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum:

Summary
Background
Initiation
Period of Investigation
Postponement of Preliminary and Final Determinations
Scope of the Investigation
Scope Comments
Product Characteristics
Selection of Respondents
Discussion of the Methodology
    Non-Market Economy Country
    Surrogate Country and Surrogate Value Comments
    Separate Rates
    Margin for the Separate Rate Companies
    Combination Rates
    The PRC-wide Entity
    Application of Facts Available and Adverse Inferences
    Affiliation/Single Entity
    Date of Sale
    Fair Value Comparisons
    Export Price
    Value-Added Tax
    Normal Value
    Factor Valuation Methodology
    Comparisons to Normal Value
    Currency Conversion
Verification
Adjustments for Countervailable Subsidies
International Trade Commission Notification
Conclusion

[FR Doc. 2015-26264 Filed 10-14-15; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P