[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 43 (Monday, March 5, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 9274-9277]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-04402]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-054]


Countervailing Duty Investigation of Certain Aluminum Foil From 
the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters 
of certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from the People's Republic of 
China (China). The period of investigation is January 1, 2016, through 
December 31, 2016. For information on the estimated subsidy rates, see 
the ``Final Determination and Suspension of Liquidation'' section of 
this notice.

DATES: Applicable March 5, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yasmin Bordas, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone (202) 482-3813.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Commerce published the Preliminary Determination on August 14, 
2017.\1\ A summary of the events that occurred since Commerce published 
the Preliminary Determination, as well as a full discussion of the 
issues raised by

[[Page 9275]]

parties for this final determination, may be found in the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum \2\ issued concurrently with this notice. The 
Issues and 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 Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly 
at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/. The signed Issues and Decision 
Memorandum and the electronic version are identical in content.
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    \1\ See Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's Republic of 
China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, 82 
FR 37844 (August 14, 2017) (Preliminary Determination) and 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the 
Final Determination in the Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's Republic of China,'' dated 
concurrently with this determination and hereby adopted by this 
notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum).
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Scope Comments

    We invited parties to comment on Commerce's Preliminary Scope 
Memorandum.\3\ Commerce has reviewed the briefs submitted by interested 
parties, considered the arguments therein, and has made changes to the 
scope of the investigation. For further discussion, see Commerce's 
Final Scope Decision Memorandum.\4\
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    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's 
Republic of China: Scope Comments Decision Memorandum for the 
Preliminary Determinations,'' dated October 26, 2017, and filed to 
ACCESS on October 30, 2017.
    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's 
Republic of China: Final Scope Decision Memorandum,'' dated 
concurrently with this memorandum.
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this countervailing duty (CVD) investigation 
in accordance with section 701 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended 
(Act). For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, we 
determine that there is a subsidy (i.e., a financial contribution by an 
``authority'' that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient) and that 
the subsidy is specific. For a full description of the methodology 
underlying our final determination, see the Issues and Decisions 
Memorandum.

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is aluminum foil from 
China. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, 
see Appendix II.

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, in November 2017, we 
conducted verification of the questionnaire responses submitted by 
Dingsheng Aluminum (Hong Kong) Trading Co., Ltd. (Dingsheng HK) and 
Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co., Ltd. (Zhongji). We issued 
verification reports on November 25, 2017.\5\ We used standard 
verification procedures, including an examination of relevant 
accounting and financial records, and original source documents 
provided by Dingsheng HK and Zhongji.
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    \5\ See Commerce Memoranda, ``Verification of the Questionnaire 
Responses of Dingsheng Aluminum Industries (Hong Kong) Trading Co., 
Ltd.: Countervailing Duty Investigation of Certain Aluminum Foil 
from the People's Republic of China,'' (Dingsheng Verification 
Report) and ``Verification of the Questionnaire Responses of Jiangsu 
Zhongji Lamination Materials Co., Ltd.: Countervailing Duty 
Investigation of Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's Republic of 
China,'' (Zhongji Verification Report), both dated November 25, 
2017.
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Analysis of Subsidy Programs and Comments Received

    The subsidy programs under investigation, and the issues raised in 
the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by the parties, are discussed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues that parties 
raised, and to which we responded in the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum, is attached to this notice at Appendix I.

Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)

    For purposes of this final determination, we relied on facts 
available, and because certain respondents did not act to the best of 
their ability in responding to Commerce's requests for information, we 
drew an adverse inference, where appropriate, in selecting from among 
the facts otherwise available.\6\ The subsidy rates for Loften Aluminum 
(Hong Kong) Limited and Manakin Industries, LLC, are based totally on 
AFA. A full discussion of our decision to rely on adverse facts 
available is presented in the ``Use of Facts Otherwise Available and 
Adverse Inferences'' section of the Issues and Decisions Memorandum.
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    \6\ See sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act.
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Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our review and analysis of the comments received from 
parties, and minor corrections presented at verification, we made 
certain changes to the respondents' subsidy rate calculations since the 
Preliminary Determination. For a discussion of these changes, see the 
Issues and Decision Memorandum and the Final Calculation Memoranda.\7\
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    \7\ See Memoranda, ``Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's Republic of China: Final 
Determination Calculation Memorandum for Dingsheng Aluminum (Hong 
Kong) Trading Co., Ltd.,'' dated February 26, 2018 (Dingsheng Final 
Calculation Memorandum) and ``Countervailing Duty Investigation of 
Certain Aluminum Foil from the People's Republic of China: Final 
Determination Calculation Memorandum for Zhongji Lamination 
Materials Co., Ltd,'' dated February 26, 2018 (Zhongji Final 
Calculation Memorandum).
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All-Others Rate

    In accordance with section 705(c)(1)(B)(i) of the Act, we 
calculated an individual rate for each producer/exporter of the subject 
merchandise individually investigated.
    In accordance with section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act, for companies 
not individually investigated, we apply an ``all-others'' rate, which 
is normally calculated by weighting the subsidy rates of the individual 
companies selected as mandatory respondents by those companies' exports 
of the subject merchandise to the United States. Under section 
705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, the ``all-others'' rate excludes zero and 
de minimis rates calculated for the exporters and producers 
individually investigated as well as rates based entirely on facts 
otherwise available. Where the rates for the individually investigated 
companies are all zero or de minimis, or determined entirely using 
facts otherwise available, section 705(c)(5)(A)(ii) of the Act 
instructs Commerce to establish an ``all-others'' rate using ``any 
reasonable method.''
    Pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, we have calculated 
the ``all-others'' rate using the subsidy rates of Dingsheng HK and 
Zhongji, the only two mandatory respondents not receiving a subsidy 
rate based totally on section 776 of the Act. However, we have not 
calculated the ``all-others'' rate by weight-averaging these two rates 
because doing so risks disclosure of proprietary information. 
Therefore, and consistent with Commerce's practice, for the ``all-
others'' rate, we calculated a simple average of these two mandatory 
respondents' subsidy rates.

Final Determination

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Subsidy rate
                         Company                             (percent)
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Dingsheng Aluminum Industries (Hong Kong) Trading Co.,             19.98
 Ltd.\8\................................................
Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Co., Ltd.\9\.......           17.14
Loften Aluminum (Hong Kong) Limited.....................           80.97
Manakin Industries, LLC \10\............................           80.97

[[Page 9276]]

 
All-Others..............................................           18.56
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Disclosure
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    \8\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found the following companies to be cross-owned with 
Dingsheng HK: Jiangsu Dingsheng New Materials Joint-Stock Co., Ltd.; 
Hangzhou Teemful Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Hangzhou Five Star Aluminum 
Co., Ltd.; Hangzhou DingCheng Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Luoyang Longding 
Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Hangzhou Dingsheng Industrial Group Co., Ltd.; 
Hangzhou Dingsheng Import & Export Co., Ltd.; and Walson (HK) 
Trading Co., Limited.
    \9\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found the following companies to be cross-owned with 
Zhongji: Shantou Wanshun Package Material Stock Co., Ltd.; Jiangsu 
Huafeng Aluminum Industry Co., Ltd.; and Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination 
Materials Co., (HK) Ltd.
    \10\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce finds that Manakin Industries and Suzhou Manakin Aluminum 
Processing Technology Co., Ltd., effectively function by joint 
operation as a trading company. Therefore, the rate for Manakin 
Industries also applies to Suzhou Manakin Aluminum Processing 
Technology Co., Ltd. For additional information, see Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum and Issues and Decision Memorandum.
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    We intend to disclose to parties in this proceeding the 
calculations performed for this final determination within five days of 
the date of public announcement of our final determination, in 
accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

Suspension of Liquidation

    As a result of our Preliminary Determination, and pursuant to 
sections 703(d)(1)(B) and (2) of the Act, we instructed U.S. Customs 
and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of all entries of 
merchandise under consideration from the PRC that were entered or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on or after August 14, 2017, 
the date of publication of the Preliminary Determination in the Federal 
Register. In accordance with section 703(d) of the Act, on December 12, 
2017, we instructed CBP to discontinue the suspension of liquidation of 
all entries at that time.
    If the U.S. International Trade Commission (the ITC) issues a final 
affirmative injury determination, we will issue a CVD order, will 
reinstate the suspension of liquidation under section 706(a) of the 
Act, and will require a cash deposit of estimated CVDs for such entries 
of subject merchandise in the amounts indicated above. If the ITC 
determines that material injury, or threat of material injury, does not 
exist, this proceeding will be terminated and all estimated duties 
deposited or securities posted as a result of the suspension of 
liquidation will be refunded or canceled.

International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 705(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
ITC of our determination. In addition, we are making available to the 
ITC all non-privileged and non-proprietary information related to this 
investigation. We will allow the ITC access to all privileged and 
business proprietary information in our files, provided the ITC 
confirms that it will not disclose such information, either publicly or 
under an administrative protective order (APO), without the written 
consent of the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Orders

    This notice also serves as a reminder to parties subject to 
administrative protective orders (APOs) of their responsibility 
concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under 
APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely written 
notification of the return or 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.

Return or Destruction of Proprietary Information

    In the event the ITC issues a final negative injury determination, 
this notice serves as the only reminder to parties subject to an APO of 
their responsibility concerning the destruction of proprietary 
information disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.305(a)(3). Timely written notification of the return or destruction 
of APO materials, or conversion to judicial protective order, is hereby 
requested. Failure to comply with the regulations and terms of an APO 
is a violation subject to sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is issued and published pursuant to sections 
705(d) and 777(i) of the Act.

    Dated: February 26, 2018.
Prentiss Lee Smith,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations.

Appendix I

List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Scope of the Investigation
IV. Scope Comments
V. Application of the Countervailing Duty Law to Imports from the 
PRC
VI. Subsidies Valuation Information
VII. Benchmarks and Discount Rates
VIII. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences
IX. Analysis of Programs
X. Analysis of Comments
    Comment 1: Whether Commerce Erred in Its Treatment of Manakin
    Comment 2: Whether the Record Supports a Finding of Policy 
Lending
    Comment 3: Whether Chinese Commercial Banks Are Government 
Authorities
    Comment 4: Whether Commerce's Policy Lending Benchmark Interest 
Rate Computations Are Supported by the Record and Lawful
    Comment 5: Whether Commerce's Investigation of Uninitiated 
Programs Is Lawful
    Comment 6: Whether Commerce Should Change Its Export Buyer's 
Credit Determination
    Comment 7: Whether Commerce Should Use the USD Interest Rate 
Benchmark for Hong Kong Loans
    Comment 8: Whether Loans Issued in Hong Kong to Hong Kong 
Companies Are Countervailable
    Comment 9: Whether Commerce Should Revise Dingsheng's Sales 
Denominator
    Comment 10: Whether Commerce Should Correct Calculation Errors 
for Dingsheng's Loans
    Comment 11: Whether Commerce Should Correct Calculation Errors 
for Dingsheng's Aluminum and Coal Purchases
    Comment 12: Whether Commerce Should Place Interest Rate 
Benchmarks on the Record That Are Contemporaneous to the POI
    Comment 13: Whether Commerce Should Rely on AFA for Subsidies 
Discovered at Zhongji's Verification
    Comment 14: Whether Commerce Should Grant Zhongji an Export 
Value Adjustment
    Comment 15: Whether Commerce Improperly Rejected Dingsheng's 
Benchmark Data
    Comment 16: Whether Commerce Should Revise the Benchmarks for 
Primary Aluminum
    Comment 17: Whether the GOC Provided Sufficient Evidence To Find 
That Input Suppliers Were Not Government Authorities
    Comment 18: Whether CCP Affiliations or Activities by Company 
Officials Make a Company a Government Authority
    Comment 19: Whether the Primary Aluminum and Steam Coal for LTAR 
Programs Are Specific
    Comment 20: Whether Commerce Must Use a Tier-One Benchmark for 
the Primary Aluminum and Steam Coal for LTAR Programs
    Comment 21: Whether Dingsheng's Income Tax Deductions for R&D 
Expenses Are Understated
    Comment 22: Whether Commerce Selected the Highest Electricity 
Rate Benchmarks
    Comment 23: Whether Commerce Should Apply AFA for Electricity

[[Page 9277]]

    Comment 24: Whether Commerce Should Adjust the Electricity 
Benchmark for VAT
    Comment 25: Whether Electricity Constitutes General 
Infrastructure and Provides a Financial Contribution
    Comment 26: Whether Commerce Should Rely on Xeneta Data for 
Freight Benchmark
    Comment 27: Whether Commerce Should Find Non-Use of Steam Coal
XI. Recommendation

Appendix II

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is aluminum foil 
having a thickness of 0.2 mm or less, in reels exceeding 25 pounds, 
regardless of width. Aluminum foil is made from an aluminum alloy 
that contains more than 92 percent aluminum. Aluminum foil may be 
made to ASTM specification ASTM B479, but can also be made to other 
specifications. Regardless of specification, however, all aluminum 
foil meeting the scope description is included in the scope, 
including aluminum foil to which lubricant has been applied to one 
or both sides of the foil.
    Excluded from the scope of this investigation is aluminum foil 
that is backed with paper, paperboard, plastics, or similar backing 
materials on one side or both sides of the aluminum foil, as well as 
etched capacitor foil and aluminum foil that is cut to shape.
    Where the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is 
within the scope if application of either the nominal or actual 
measurement would place it within the scope based on the definitions 
set forth above. The products under investigation are currently 
classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) subheadings 7607.11.3000, 7607.11.6000, 7607.11.9030, 
7607.11.9060, 7607.11.9090, and 7607.19.6000. Further, merchandise 
that falls within the scope of this proceeding may also be entered 
into the United States under HTSUS subheadings 7606.11.3060, 
7606.11.6000, 7606.12.3045, 7606.12.3055, 7606.12.3090, 
7606.12.6000, 7606.91.3090, 7606.91.6080, 7606.92.3090, and 
7606.92.6080.
    Although the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and 
customs purposes, the written description of the scope of this 
proceeding is dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2018-04402 Filed 3-2-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P