[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 88 (Monday, May 7, 2018)]
[Notices]
[Pages 20039-20041]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-09632]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-066]


Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin From the People's Republic of 
China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of 
Provisional Measures

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines 
that polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin from the People's Republic of 
China (China) is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States 
at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation (POI) is 
January 1, 2017, through June 30, 2017. Interested parties are invited 
to comment on this preliminary determination.

DATES: Applicable May 7, 2018.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thomas Schauer or Michael Romani, AD/
CVD Operations, Office I, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-0410 or (202) 
482-0198, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    This preliminary determination is made in accordance with section 
733(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce 
published the notice of initiation of this investigation on October 26, 
2017.\1\
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    \1\ See Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin from India and the 
People's Republic of China: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigations, 82 FR 49587 (October 26, 2017) (Initiation Notice).
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    Commerce exercised its discretion to toll all deadlines affected by 
the closure of the Federal Government from January 20 through 22, 
2018.\2\ Accordingly, the revised deadline for the preliminary 
determination of this investigation became March 12, 2018.\3\ 
Subsequently, on February 20, 2018, Commerce postponed the preliminary 
determination of this investigation and the revised deadline is now 
April 30, 2018.\4\ For a complete description of the events that 
followed the initiation of this investigation, see the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum.\5\ A list of topics addressed in the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum is included as Appendix II to this notice. The 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on file 
electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's

[[Page 20040]]

Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service 
System (ACCESS). ACCESS is available to registered users at https://access.trade.gov, and 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 at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/.
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    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Deadlines Affected by the Shutdown of the 
Federal Government,'' dated January 23, 2018. All deadlines in this 
segment of the proceeding have been extended by 3 days.
    \3\ Id.
    \4\ See Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin from the People's Republic 
of China: Postponement of Preliminary Determination of Antidumping 
Duty Investigation, 83 FR 8423 (February 27, 2018).
    \5\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary 
Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation of 
Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin from the People's Republic of China,'' 
dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice 
(Preliminary Decision Memorandum).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is PTFE resin from China. 
For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, see 
Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    In accordance with the preamble to Commerce's regulations,\6\ the 
Initiation Notice set aside a period of time for parties to raise 
issues regarding product coverage (scope).\7\ Certain interested 
parties commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in 
the Initiation Notice. For a summary of the product coverage comments 
and rebuttal responses submitted to the record for this investigation, 
and accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments timely 
received, see the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum.\8\ See the 
scope in Appendix I to this notice. The scope case briefs were due on 
April 9, 2018, 30 days after the publication of PTFE Resin from India 
CVD.\9\ There will be no further opportunity for comments on scope-
related issues.\10\
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    \6\ See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule, 
62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997).
    \7\ See Initiation Notice.
    \8\ See Memorandum, ``Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin from India 
and the People's Republic of China: Scope Comments Decision 
Memorandum for the Preliminary Determinations,'' dated February 28, 
2018 (Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum).
    \9\ The scope case briefs were due 30 days after the publication 
of Polytetrafluoroethylene Resin from India: Preliminary Affirmative 
Countervailing Duty Determination, 83 FR 9842 (March 8, 2018) (PTFE 
Resin from India CVD), which was Saturday, April 7, 2018. See the 
Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum at 2. Therefore, the actual 
deadline for the scope case briefs was Monday, April 9, 2018. See 19 
CFR 351.303(b)(1) (``For both electronically filed and manually 
filed documents, if the applicable due date falls on a non-business 
day, the Secretary will accept documents that are filed on the next 
business day.''). The deadline for scope rebuttal briefs was Monday, 
April 16, 2018.
    \10\ See Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum at 3 (``Parties 
should include all arguments about scope-related issues in the scope 
case and scope rebuttal briefs. Commerce does not intend to permit 
arguments about scope-related issues in the investigation-specific 
case and rebuttal briefs regarding other issues.'')
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with 
section 731 of the Act. Export prices were calculated in accordance 
with section 772(a) of the Act; constructed export prices were 
calculated in accordance with section 772(b) of the Act. Because China 
is a non-market economy, within the meaning of section 771(18) of the 
Act, Commerce calculated normal value (NV) in accordance with section 
773(c) of the Act. In addition, pursuant to section 776(a) and (b) of 
the Act, Commerce preliminarily relied on facts otherwise available, 
with adverse inferences, for the China-wide entity. For a full 
description of the methodology underlying Commerce's preliminary 
determination, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Combination Rates

    In the Initiation Notice,\11\ we stated that we would calculate 
producer/exporter combination rates for the respondents that are 
eligible for a separate rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 
05.1 describes this practice.\12\ In this investigation, we calculated 
producer/exporter combination rates for respondents eligible for 
separate rates.
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    \11\ See Initiation Notice at 49591.
    \12\ 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 
Commerce's website at http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Preliminary Determination

    Commerce preliminarily determines that the following estimated 
weighted-average dumping margins exist:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                             Estimated
                                                             weighted-
                                                              average
             Exporter                     Producer        dumping margin
                                                            (percent ad
                                                             valorem)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Daikin Fluorochemicals (China)      Daikin                         84.75
 Co., Ltd.                           Fluorochemicals
                                     (China) Co., Ltd.
Shandong Dongyue Polymer Material   Shandong Dongyue               69.34
 Co., Ltd.                           Polymer Material
                                     Co., Ltd.
Hangzhou Fine Fluorotech Co., Ltd.  Qingdao Orientalflon           78.74
                                     New Materials Co.,
                                     Ltd.
Hangzhou Fine Fluorotech Co., Ltd.  Zhejiang Juhua Co.,            78.74
                                     Ltd. Fluor-
                                     Polymeric Plant.
Shanghai Huayi 3f New Materials     Shanghai 3f New                78.74
 Sales Co., Ltd.                     Materials Co., Ltd.
China-Wide Entity.................  ....................          208.16
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, Commerce will 
direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation 
of entries of subject merchandise as described in Appendix I entered, 
or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of 
publication of this notice in the Federal Register, as discussed below. 
Further, pursuant to section 733(d)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.205(d), Commerce will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal 
to the weighted-average amount by which NV exceeds U.S. price, as 
indicated in the chart above as follows: (1) For the exporter/producer 
combinations listed in the table above, the cash deposit rate is equal 
to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin listed for that 
combination in the table; (2) for all combinations of China producers/
exporters of merchandise under consideration that have not established 
eligibility for their own separate rates, the cash deposit rate will be 
equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin established for 
the China-wide entity; and (3) for all third-county exporters of 
merchandise under consideration not listed in the table above, the cash 
deposit rate is the cash deposit rate applicable to the China exporter/
producer combination (or the China-wide entity) that supplied that 
third-country exporter.
    These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain in effect 
until further notice.

Disclosure

    Commerce intends to disclose to interested parties the calculations 
performed in connection with this

[[Page 20041]]

preliminary determination within five days of its public announcement 
or, if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of 
publication of this notice in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

Verification

    As provided in section 782(i)(1) of the Act, Commerce intends to 
verify information relied upon in making its final determination.

Public Comment

    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 last final verification report is 
issued in this investigation.\13\ Rebuttal briefs, limited to issues 
raised in case briefs, may be submitted no later than five days after 
the deadline date for case briefs.\14\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) 
and (d)(2), parties who submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs in this 
investigation 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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    \13\ Case briefs, other written comments, and rebuttal briefs 
should not include scope-related issues. See Preliminary Scope 
Decision Memorandum at 2-3. Parties were already permitted the 
opportunity to file scope case briefs. Id.
    \14\ 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, limited to issues raised in the case and rebuttal 
briefs, must submit a written request to the Assistant Secretary for 
Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, within 30 days 
after the date of publication of this notice. Requests should contain 
the party's name, address, and telephone number, the number of 
participants, whether any participant is a foreign national, and a list 
of the issues to be discussed. If a request for a hearing is made, 
Commerce intends to hold the hearing at the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230, at a time 
and date to be determined. Parties should confirm by telephone the 
date, time, and location of the hearing two days before the scheduled 
date.

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, 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, a request for such postponement is made by 
the petitioners. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.210(e)(2), Commerce 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 March 2018, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.210(e), Shandong Dongyue 
Polymer Material Co., Ltd., and Daikin Fluorochemicals (China) Co., 
Ltd., requested that Commerce postpone the final determination and that 
provisional measures be extended to a period not to exceed six 
months.\15\ In accordance with section 735(a)(2)(A) of the Act and 19 
CFR 351.210(b)(2)(ii), because (1) the 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, Commerce is postponing the final 
determination and extending the provisional measures from a four-month 
period to a period not greater than six months. Accordingly, Commerce's 
final determination will be published no later than 135 days after the 
date of publication of this preliminary determination.
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    \15\ See Letter from Shandong Dongyue Polymer Material Co., 
Ltd., ``PTFE Resin from the People's Republic of China: Request to 
Postpone the Final Results of the Investigation,'' dated March 19, 
2018, and Letter from Daikin Fluorochemicals (China) Co., Ltd., 
``Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) Resin from the People's Republic of 
China: Request to Postpone Final Determination,'' dated March 20, 
2018.
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 733(f) of the Act, Commerce will notify 
the International Trade Commission (ITC) of its preliminary 
determination of sales at LTFV. If the final determination is 
affirmative, the ITC will determine before the later of 120 days after 
the date of this preliminary determination or 45 days after the final 
determination whether imports of the subject merchandise are materially 
injuring, or threaten material injury to, the U.S. industry.

Notification to Interested Parties

    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: April 30, 2018.
Gary Taverman,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Operations, performing the non-exclusive functions and duties of the 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

Scope of the Investigation

    The product covered by this investigation is 
polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin, including but not limited to 
granular, dispersion, or coagulated dispersion (also known as fine 
powder). PTFE is covered by the scope of this investigation whether 
filled or unfilled, whether or not modified, and whether or not 
containing co-polymer additives, pigments, or other materials. Also 
included is PTFE wet raw polymer. The chemical formula for PTFE is 
C2F4, and the Chemical Abstracts Service Registry number is 9002-84-
0.
    PTFE further processed into micropowder, having particle size 
typically ranging from 1 to 25 microns, and a melt-flow rate no less 
than 0.1 gram/10 minutes, is excluded from the scope of this 
investigation.
    PTFE is classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 
United States (HTSUS) under subheadings 3904.61.0010 and 
3904.61.0090. Subject merchandise may also be classified under HTSUS 
subheading 3904.69.5000. Although the HTSUS subheadings and CAS 
Number are provided for convenience and Customs purposes, the 
written description of the scope is dispositive.

Appendix II

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Period of Investigation
IV. Scope Comments
V. Product Characteristics
VI. Selection of Respondents
VII. Discussion of the Methodology
    A. Non-Market Economy Country
    B. Surrogate Country
    C. Surrogate Value Comments
    D. Separate Rates
    E. Dumping Margin for the Separate Rate Companies
    F. Combination Rates
    G. China-Wide Entity
    H. Application of Facts Available and Adverse Inferences
    I. Date of Sale
    J. Comparisons to Fair Value
    K. U.S. Price
    L. Normal Value
    M. Factor Valuation Methodology
    N. Currency Conversion
VIII. Conclusion

[FR Doc. 2018-09632 Filed 5-4-18; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P