[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 107 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25748-25750]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-11589]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-094]


Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs From the People's Republic of 
China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination, in Part, of Critical 
Circumstances in the Countervailing Duty Investigation

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


DATES: Applicable June 4, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Nicholas Czajkowski, 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) 482-1395.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On April 5, 2019, the Department of Commerce (Commerce) published 
the preliminary determination in the countervailing duty (CVD) 
investigation of imports of refillable stainless steel kegs (kegs) from 
the People's Republic of China.\1\ On May 2, 2019, the American Keg 
Company LLC (petitioner) alleged that critical circumstances exist with 
respect to imports of kegs from China, pursuant to sections 703(e) of 
the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.206.\2\
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    \1\ See Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty 
Determination and Alignment of Final Determination With Final 
Antidumping Duty Determination, 84 FR 13634 (April 5, 2019) 
(Preliminary Determination) and accompanying Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum (PDM).
    \2\ See Letter from the petitioner, ``Refillable Stainless Steel 
Kegs from the People's Republic of China: Petitioner's Critical 
Circumstances Allegation,'' dated May 2, 2019.
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    In accordance with 19 CFR 351.206(c)(2)(ii), if the petitioner 
submits an allegation of critical circumstances later than 20 days 
before the scheduled date of the preliminary determination, Commerce 
must issue a

[[Page 25749]]

preliminary finding whether there is a reasonable basis to believe or 
suspect that critical circumstances exist within 30 days of the 
petitioner's allegation.
    Section 703(e)(1) of the Act provides that Commerce, upon receipt 
of a timely allegation of critical circumstances, will preliminarily 
determine that critical circumstances exist in CVD investigations if 
there is a reasonable basis to believe or suspect that: (A) ``the 
alleged countervailable subsidy'' is inconsistent with the Subsidies 
and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement of the World Trade 
Organization; and (B) there have been massive imports of the subject 
merchandise over a relatively short period. Sections 351.206(h)(2) and 
(i) of Commerce's regulations provide that imports must increase by at 
least 15 percent during the ``relatively short period'' to be 
considered ``massive'' and defines a ``relatively short period'' as 
normally being the period beginning on the date the proceeding begins 
(i.e., the date the petition is filed) and ending at least three months 
later.

Critical Circumstances Analysis

    To determine whether an alleged countervailable subsidy is 
inconsistent with the SCM Agreement, in accordance with section 
703(e)(1)(A) of the Act, Commerce considered the evidence on the record 
of this CVD investigation. Specifically, as reflected in the 
Preliminary Determination, Commerce found that Ningbo Master 
International Trade Co., Ltd. (Ningbo Master), the one participating 
mandatory respondent in this investigation, benefitted from the 
following export-contingent subsidies: International Market Expansion 
Fund and Export Assistance Grants.\3\
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    \3\ See e.g., Memorandum to the File, ``Countervailing Duty 
Investigation of Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Determination Calculations for Ningbo 
Master International Trade Co., Ltd.,'' dated March 29, 2019.
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    In determining whether there are ``massive imports'' over a 
``relatively short period,'' pursuant to section 703(e)(1)(B) of the 
Act, Commerce normally compares the import volumes of the subject 
merchandise for at least three months immediately preceding the filing 
of the petition (i.e., the ``base period'') to a comparable period of 
at least three months following the filing of the petition (i.e., the 
``comparison period'').\4\ Imports will normally be considered massive 
when imports during the comparison period have increased by 15 percent 
or more compared to imports during the base period.\5\
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    \4\ See Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations of 
Certain Softwood Lumber Products from Canada: Preliminary 
Determinations of Critical Circumstances, 82 FR 19219 (April 27, 
2017) at 19220, unchanged in Certain Softwood Lumber Products from 
Canada: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair 
Value and Affirmative Final Determination of Critical Circumstances, 
82 FR 51806 (November 8, 2017) at 51807-08.
    \5\ Id.
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    Accordingly, to determine preliminarily whether there has been a 
massive surge in imports for Ningbo Master International Trade Co., 
Ltd. (Ningbo Master), the mandatory respondent in this investigation, 
which provided shipment data, Commerce compared the total volume of 
shipments from October 2018 through April 2019, the comparison period 
(i.e., all months for which shipment data was available), with the 
preceding seven-month period of March 2018 through September 2018, the 
base period. After analyzing the data submitted, we preliminarily 
determine imports from Ningbo Master were not massive (i.e., did not 
increase by more than 15 percent between the base and comparison 
periods) over a relatively short period of time within the context of 
19 CFR 351.206(h).\6\
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    \6\ See Memorandum to the File, ``Countervailing Duty 
Investigation of Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Determination of Critical 
Circumstances'' dated concurrently with this notice.
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    As detailed in the Preliminary Determination, Commerce applied an 
Adverse Facts Available (AFA) rate for certain companies that did not 
act to the best of their ability to respond to Commerce's requests for 
information.\7\ Therefore, we preliminarily determine, on the basis of 
AFA,\8\ that there has been a massive surge in imports for these 19 
companies that chose not to participate in this investigation. Further, 
in the Preliminary Determination, we preliminarily determined that all 
19 companies benefited from export-contingent countervailable 
subsidies, including the ``International Market Expansion Fund'' and 
``Export Assistance Grants'' programs.\9\ Therefore, we preliminarily 
find that these companies received countervailable subsidies that are 
inconsistent with the SCM Agreement, in accordance with section 
703(e)(1)(A) of the Act. As such, we preliminarily determine that 
critical circumstances exist with respect to these AFA companies only.
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    \7\ See PDM at pages 14-17. Specifically, one mandatory 
respondent, Penglai Jinfu Stainless Steel Products Co., Ltd., failed 
to respond to Commerce's questionnaire, and the following 18 
companies failed to respond to Commerce's Quantity and Value 
Questionnaire: Equipmentines (Dalian) E[hyphen]Commerce Co., Ltd.; 
Jinan HaoLu Machinery Equipment Co., Ltd.; NDL Keg Qingdao Inc.; 
Ningbo Direct Import & Export Co., Ltd.; Ningbo Hefeng Container 
Manufacture Co., Ltd.; Ningbo Hefeng Kitchen Utensils Manufacture 
Co., Ltd.; Ningbo HGM Food Machinery Co., Ltd.; Ningbo Jiangbei Bei 
Fu Industry and Trade Co., Ltd.; Ningbo Sanfino Import & Export Co., 
Ltd.; Ningbo Shimaotong International Co., Ltd.; Ningbo Sunburst 
International Trading Co., Ltd.; Orient Equipment (Taizhou) Co., 
Ltd.; Qingdao Henka Precision Technology Co., Ltd.; Shandong Tiantai 
Beer Equipment; Sino Dragon Trading International; Wenzhou Deli 
Machinery Equipment Co.; Wuxi Taihu Lamps and Lanterns Co., Ltd.; 
and Yantai Trano New Material Co., Ltd.
    \8\ See section 776 of the Act.
    \9\ See PDM at pages 15-17 and Appendix.
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    To determine whether imports were massive for all other producers/
exporters, Commerce's normal practice is to subtract shipments reported 
by the cooperating mandatory respondents from shipment data of subject 
merchandise compiled by the ITC.\10\ However, as discussed in the 
Initiation Notice \11\ for this investigation, the Harmonized Tariff 
Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) numbers under which the subject 
merchandise would enter are basket categories containing a wide variety 
of manufactured steel products unrelated to kegs. Therefore, consistent 
with prior practice, we have preliminarily relied upon the 
participating respondent company's data as ``facts available'' in 
accordance with section 776(a)(1) of the Act to determine whether 
imports from all other producers/exporters were massive.\12\ Based on 
the import data submitted by Ningbo Master, we have preliminarily 
determined that imports from all other producers/exporters likewise 
were not massive.
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    \10\ See, e.g., Antidumping Duty Investigation on Refillable 
Stainless Steel Kegs from Mexico: Preliminary Affirmative 
Determination of Critical Circumstances, 84 FR 18796 (May 2, 2019) 
at 18798 (Kegs from Mexico Preliminary Critical Circumstances 
Determination).
    \11\ See Memorandum to the File, ``Countervailing Duty 
Investigation Initiation Checklist: Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs 
from the People's Republic of China,'' dated October 10, 2018 
(Initiation Checklist); see also Refillable Stainless Steel Kegs 
from the Peoples Republic of China: Initiation of Countervailing 
Duty Investigation, 83 FR 52192 (October 16, 2018) (Initiation 
Notice).
    \12\ See, e.g., Kegs from Mexico Preliminary Critical 
Circumstances Determination, 84 FR at 18798.
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Final Critical Circumstances Determination

    We will issue our final determinations concerning critical 
circumstances when we issue our final CVD determination. All interested 
parties will have the opportunity to address this determination. Case 
briefs, addressing critical circumstances only, may be submitted to the 
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance no later than seven 
days after the publication date of this notice. Rebuttal briefs, 
limited to issues raised in these critical circumstances-only case 
briefs, may be

[[Page 25750]]

submitted no later than five days after the deadline date for case 
briefs.\13\ Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), parties who 
submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs for this critical circumstances 
finding 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\ See 19 CFR 351.309; see also 19 CFR 351.303 (for general 
filing requirements).
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ITC Notification

    In accordance with section 703(f) of the Act, we will notify the 
ITC of this preliminary determination of critical circumstances.

Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 703(e)(2)(A) of the Act, for the 19 
companies that chose not to participate in this investigation, we will 
direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation 
of any unliquidated entries of subject merchandise from China entered, 
or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after January 5, 
2019, which is 90 days prior to the date of publication of the 
Preliminary Determination in the Federal Register. For such entries, 
CBP shall require a cash deposit equal to the estimated preliminary 
subsidy rates established for these companies in the Preliminary 
Determination. This suspension of liquidation will remain in effect 
until further notice.
    This determination is issued and published pursuant to section 
777(i) of the Act.

    Dated: May 28, 2019.
Christian Marsh,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2019-11589 Filed 6-3-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P