[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 1, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18489-18490]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08826]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-081]


Glycine From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative 
Countervailing Duty 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 glycine from the People's Republic of China (China) for the period 
of investigation (POI) January 1, 2017, through December 31, 2017.

DATES: Applicable May 1, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Yasmin Bordas or Tyler Weinhold, 
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. 
Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 
20230; telephone: (202) 482-3813 or (202) 482-0121, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    This final determination is made in accordance with section 705 of 
the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). The petitioners in this 
investigation are GEO Specialty Chemicals, Inc. and Chattem Chemicals, 
Inc. (the petitioners).\1\ The mandatory respondents in this 
investigation are JC Chemicals Limited and Simagchem Corp. Neither the 
mandatory respondents nor the Government of China responded to our 
requests for information in this investigation. On September 4, 2018, 
Commerce published in the Federal Register the Preliminary 
Determination and invited interested parties to comment.\2\ We received 
no comments regarding the Preliminary Determination but did receive 
scope comments from certain interested parties. Commerce exercised its 
discretion to toll all deadlines affected by the partial federal 
government closure from December 22, 2018, through the resumption of 
operations on January 29, 2019.\3\ Accordingly, the revised deadline 
for the final determination is now April 24, 2019.
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    \1\ See Petitioners' letter, ``Glycine from the People's 
Republic of China, India, Japan and Thailand: Petitions for the 
Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties,'' dated March 
28, 2018 (Petition).
    \2\ See Glycine From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary 
Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, 83 FR 44863 
(September 4, 2018) (Preliminary Determination), and the 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
    \3\ See Memorandum to the Record from 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, ``Deadlines 
Affected by the Partial Shutdown of the Federal Government,'' dated 
January 28, 2019. All deadlines in this investigation affected by 
the partial federal government closure have been extended by 40 
days. If the new deadline falls on a non-business day, in accordance 
with Commerce's practice, the deadline will become the next business 
day.
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Period of Investigation

    The period of investigation is January 1, 2017, through December 
31, 2017.

Scope Comments

    We invited parties to comment on Commerce's Preliminary Scope 
Decision Memorandum.\4\ In October 2018, we received timely scope 
comments from Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition North America, and the 
petitioners, GEO Specialty Chemicals, Inc., and Chattem Chemicals, 
Inc., filed rebuttal scope comments.\5\ We issued a final scope 
decision memorandum, concurrent with this final determination, in 
response to these comments.\6\ We made no changes to the scope of the 
investigation since the Preliminary Determination.
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Glycine from India, Japan, the People's 
Republic of China and Thailand: Scope Comments Decision Memorandum 
for the Preliminary Determinations,'' dated August 27, 2018.
    \5\ See Letter from AHN, ``Glycine from the People's Republic of 
China, India, Japan, and Thailand: Comments on the Scope of the 
Investigation'', dated October 4, 2018; Letter from the petitioners, 
``Glycine from India, Japan, the People's Republic of China and 
Thailand: Petitioners' Rebuttal to Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition 
North America, Inc.'s Comments on the Scope of Less-Than-Fair-Value 
and Countervailing Duty Investigations'', dated October 8, 2018.
    \6\ See Memorandum, ``Glycine from India, Japan, the People's 
Republic of China and Thailand: Scope Comments Decision Memorandum 
for the Final Determinations,'' dated April 24, 2019.
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    Commerce has reviewed the comments submitted by interested parties, 
considered the arguments therein, and has made no changes to the scope 
of the investigation. For further discussion, see Commerce's Scope 
Comments Final Decision Memorandum.\7\
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    \7\ See Memorandum, ``Glycine from India, Japan, the People's 
Republic of China and Thailand: Scope Comments Final Decision 
Memorandum,'' dated concurrently with this memorandum.
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Scope of the Investigation

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

Analysis of Subsidy Programs and Comments Received--Adverse Facts 
Available (AFA)

    For purposes of this final determination, we relied solely on facts 
available because neither the Government of China nor any of the 
selected mandatory respondents participated in this investigation. 
Further, because the mandatory respondents and the Government of China 
did not cooperate to the best of their abilities in responding to our 
requests for information in this investigation, we drew adverse 
inferences in selecting from among the facts otherwise available, in 
accordance with sections 776(a)-(b) of the Act. Therefore, consistent 
with the Preliminary Determination, we continue to apply adverse facts 
available to JC Chemicals Limited and Simagchem Corp. No interested 
party submitted comments on the Preliminary Determination. Thus we made 
no changes to the subsidy rates for the mandatory respondents for the 
final determination. A detailed discussion of our application of AFA 
was provided in the Preliminary Determination and the accompanying 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\8\
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    \8\ See Preliminary Determination, and the accompanying 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum at ``Use of Facts Otherwise 
Available and Adverse Inferences.''
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All-Others Rate

    As discussed in the Preliminary Determination, Commerce based the 
selection of the all-others rate on the countervailable subsidy rate 
established for the mandatory respondents, in accordance with section 
705(c)(5)(A)(ii) of the Act.\9\ We made no changes to the selection of 
the all-others rate for this final determination.
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    \9\ See Preliminary Determination, 83 FR at 44863, and the 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum at ``Calculation of the 
All-Others Rate.''
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Final Determination

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Subsidy
                           Company                               rate
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JC Chemicals Limited........................................      144.01
                                                                percent.
Sigmachem Corp..............................................      144.01
                                                                percent.
All Others..................................................      144.01
                                                                percent.
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[[Page 18490]]

    Commerce determines that the following estimated countervailable 
subsidy rates exist:

Disclosure

    The subsidy rate calculations in the Preliminary Determination were 
based on AFA.\10\ As noted above, there are no changes to the 
calculations. Thus, no additional disclosure is necessary for this 
final determination.
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    \10\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum at Appendix--``AFA Rate 
Calculation.''
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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 
glycine from China that were entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption, on or after September 4, 2018, the date of publication of 
the Preliminary Determination in the Federal Register.\11\ 
Additionally, in accordance with section 703(d) of the Act, we issued 
instructions to CBP to discontinue the suspension of liquidation for 
CVD purposes for subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after January 2, 2019.
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    \11\ See Preliminary Determination, 83 FR at 44863-64.
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    If the U.S. International Trade Commission (the ITC) issues a final 
affirmative injury determination, we will issue a countervailing duty 
(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 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.

Notification to Interested Parties

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

    Dated: April 24, 2019.
Jeffrey I. Kessler,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is glycine at any 
purity level or grade. This includes glycine of all purity levels, 
which covers all forms of crude or technical glycine including, but 
not limited to, sodium glycinate, glycine slurry and any other forms 
of amino acetic acid or glycine. Subject merchandise also includes 
glycine and precursors of dried crystalline glycine that are 
processed in a third country, including, but not limited to, 
refining or any other processing that would not otherwise remove the 
merchandise from the scope of this investigation if performed in the 
country of manufacture of the in-scope glycine or precursors of 
dried crystalline glycine. Glycine has the Chemical Abstracts 
Service (CAS) registry number of 56-40-6. Glycine and glycine slurry 
are classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) subheading 2922.49.43.00. Sodium glycinate is classified in 
the HTSUS under 2922.49.80.00. While the HTSUS subheadings and CAS 
registry number are provided for convenience and customs purposes, 
the written description of the scope of this investigation is 
dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2019-08826 Filed 4-30-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P