[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 202 (Friday, October 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 55913-55915]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-22765]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-017]


Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires From the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Results of Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Review and Rescission, in Part, 2017

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines 
that certain producers and exporters of passenger vehicle and light 
truck tires (passenger tires) from the People's Republic of China 
(China) received countervailable subsidies during the period of review 
(POR) January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017.

DATES: Applicable October 18, 2019.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew Huston, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4261.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On August 10, 2015, Commerce issued a countervailing duty (CVD) 
order on passenger tires from China.\1\ Several interested parties 
requested that Commerce conduct an administrative review of the CVD 
Order, and on October 4, 2018, Commerce published in the Federal 
Register a notice of initiation of an administrative review of the CVD 
Order for 46 producers/exporters for the POR.\2\ 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\
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    \1\ See Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from the 
People's Republic of China: Amended Final Affirmative Antidumping 
Duty Determination and Antidumping Duty Order; and Amended Final 
Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Countervailing 
Duty Order, 80 FR 47902 (August 10, 2015) (CVD Order).
    \2\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 83 FR 50077 (October 4, 2018) (Initiation 
Notice).
    \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 segment of the proceeding 
have been extended by 40 days.

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[[Page 55914]]

Scope of the Order

    The products covered by the order are certain passenger vehicle and 
light truck tires from China. A full description of the scope of the 
order is contained in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\4\
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    \4\ See ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Results of the 
Administrative Review of the Countervailing Duty Order on Certain 
Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires from the People's Republic 
of China and Rescission, in part, 2017,'' dated concurrently with 
this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum) and hereby adopted by 
this notice.
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this CVD review in accordance with section 
751(a)(1)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). For each 
of the subsidy programs found countervailable, we determine that there 
is a subsidy, i.e., a financial contribution by an ``authority'' that 
confers a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is 
specific.\5\ For a full description of the methodology underlying our 
preliminary conclusions, including our reliance, in part, on adverse 
facts available pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, see the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\6\
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    \5\ See sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding 
financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding 
benefit; and, section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity.
    \6\ A list of topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum can be found as an appendix to this notice.
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    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 Commerce building. In addition, a complete version of the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly on the 
internet at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/index.html. The signed 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum and the electronic versions of the 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum are identical in content.

Partial Rescission of Administrative Review

    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(1), Commerce will rescind an 
administrative review, in whole or in part, if the parties that 
requested a review withdraw the request within 90 days of the date of 
publication of the notice of initiation. We received timely withdrawals 
of the requests for review, for which no other parties requested a 
review, for the following companies: Guangrao Taihua International 
Trade Co., Ltd., Qingdao Keter International Co., Limited, Qingdao 
Odyking Tyre Co., Ltd., Qinzhou Detai International Trading Co., Ltd., 
Shengtai Group Co., Ltd., Shouguang Firemax Tyre Co., Ltd., Pirelli 
Tyre Co., Ltd., Shandong New Continent Tire Co., Ltd., Shandong Guofeng 
Rubber Plastics Co., Ltd., Qingdao Jinhaoyang International Co., Ltd., 
and Maxon Int'l Co., Limited.\7\ Therefore, in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.213(d)(1), Commerce is rescinding this review of the CVD order on 
passenger tires from China with respect to these companies.
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    \7\ See Letters from Guangrao Taihua International Trade Co., 
Ltd., Qingdao Keter International Co., Limited, Qingdao Odyking Tyre 
Co., Ltd., Qinzhou Detai International Trading Co., Ltd., Shengtai 
Group Co., Ltd., and Shouguang Firemax Tyre Co., ``Certain Passenger 
Vehicle and Light Truck Tires From the People's Republic of China--
Withdrawal of Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 
30, 2018; Pirelli Tyre Co., Ltd.'s Letter, ``Pirelli's Withdrawal of 
Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 28, 2018; 
Shandong New Continent Tire Co., Ltd.'s Letter, ``New Continent 
Withdrawal of Review Request for POR 3 of the Countervailing Duty 
Order on Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires (PVLT) from the 
People's Republic of China (C-570-017),'' dated December 26, 2018; 
Shandong Guofeng Rubber Plastics Co., Ltd.'s Letter, ``Passenger 
Vehicle and Light Truck Tires From the People's Republic of China: 
Withdrawal of Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 
21, 2018; Qingdao Jinhaoyang's Letter, ``Jinhaoyang's Withdrawal of 
Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 18, 2018; Maxon 
Int'l Co., Limited's Letter, ``Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light 
Truck Tires From the People's Republic of China--Withdrawal of 
Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 7, 2018; 
American Pacific Industries, Inc.'s Letter, ``Passenger Vehicle and 
Light Truck Tires From the People's Republic of China: Withdrawal of 
Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 28, 2019; 
American Pacific Industries, Inc.'s Letter, ``Passenger Vehicle and 
Light Truck Tires From the People's Republic of China: Withdrawal of 
Request for Administrative Review,'' dated December 19, 2019; and 
ITG Voma Corporation's Letter, ``Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck 
Tires From the People's Republic of China--Withdrawal of Request for 
Administrative Review,'' dated December 21, 2018.
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Preliminary Results of Review

    As a result of this review, we preliminarily determine the 
countervailable subsidy rates to be:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Subsidy
                                                                 rate
                           Company                             (percent
                                                                  ad
                                                               valorem)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cooper (Kunshan) Tire Co., Ltd..............................       51.09
Shandong Longyue Rubber Co., Ltd............................       71.13
Non-Selected Companies Under Review.........................       56.99
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Preliminary Rate for the Non-Selected Companies Under Review

    The statute and the Commerce's regulations do not directly address 
the establishment of rates to be applied to companies not selected for 
individual examination where Commerce limits its examination in an 
administrative review pursuant to section 777A(e)(2) of the Act. 
However, Commerce normally determines the rates for non-selected 
companies in reviews in a manner that is consistent with section 
705(c)(5) of the Act, which provides instructions for calculating the 
all-others rate in an investigation.
    Section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act instructs Commerce as a general 
rule to calculate an all others rate using the weighted average of the 
subsidy rates established for the producers/exporters individually 
examined, excluding any zero, de minimis, or rates based entirely on 
facts available. In this review, the preliminary subsidy rates 
calculated for Cooper and Longyue and their cross-owned affiliates are 
above de minimis and are not based entirely on facts available. 
Therefore, for the companies for which a review was requested that were 
not selected as mandatory company respondents and for which we did not 
receive a timely request for withdrawal of review, and which we are not 
finding to be cross-owned with the mandatory company respondents, we 
are preliminarily basing the subsidy rate on the weighted-average 
subsidy rates derived from Cooper and Longyue's publicly available 
information. For a list of these non-selected companies, please see 
Appendix II to this notice.

Disclosure and Public Comment

    Commerce intends to disclose to interested parties the calculations 
performed in connection with this preliminary determination within five 
days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.\8\ 
Interested parties may submit case and rebuttal briefs, as well as 
request a hearing.\9\ Interested parties may submit written comments 
(case briefs) within 30 days of publication of the preliminary results 
and rebuttal comments (rebuttal briefs)

[[Page 55915]]

within five days after the time limit for filing case briefs.\10\ 
Rebuttal briefs must be limited to issues raised in the case 
briefs.\11\ Parties who submit case or rebuttal briefs are requested to 
submit with the argument: (1) A statement of the issue; (2) a brief 
summary of the argument; and (3) a table of authorities.\12\
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    \8\ See 19 CFR 351.224(b).
    \9\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)-(d), 19 CFR 351.310(c).
    \10\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(l)(ii) and 351.309(d)(l).
    \11\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d)(2).
    \12\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2).
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    Interested parties who wish to request a hearing must do so within 
30 days of publication of these preliminary results by submitting a 
written request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and 
Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, using Enforcement and 
Compliance's ACCESS system.\13\ Requests should contain the party's 
name, address, and telephone number, the number of participants, and a 
list of the issues to be discussed. If a request for a hearing is made, 
we will inform parties of the scheduled date for the hearing which will 
be held at the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230, at a time and location to be determined.\14\ 
Parties should confirm by telephone the date, time, and location of the 
hearing. Issues addressed at the hearing will be limited to those 
raised in the briefs.\15\ All briefs and hearing requests must be filed 
electronically and received successfully in their entirety through 
ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the due date.
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    \13\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
    \14\ See 19 CFR 351.310.
    \15\ See 19 CFR 351.310(c).
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    Unless the deadline is extended, pursuant to section 751(a)(3)(A) 
of the Act, we intend to issue the final results of this administrative 
review, including the results of our analysis of the issues raised by 
the parties in their comments, within 120 days after issuance of these 
preliminary results.

Assessment Rates and Cash Deposit Requirement

    In accordance with 19 CFR 351.221(b)(4)(i), we preliminarily 
assigned subsidy rates in the amounts shown above for the producers/
exporters shown above. Upon issuance of the final results, Commerce 
shall determine, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall 
assess, CVDs on all appropriate entries covered by this review. We 
intend to issue instructions to CBP 15 days after publication of the 
final results of review. For companies for which this review is 
rescinded, Commerce will instruct CBP to assess countervailing duties 
on all appropriate entries at a rate equal to the cash deposit of 
estimated countervailing duties required at the time of entry, or 
withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption, during the period January 
1, 2017 through December 31, 2017, in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.212(c)(l)(i). Commerce intends to issue appropriate assessment 
instructions directly to CBP 15 days after publication of this notice.
    Pursuant to section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act, Commerce also intends 
to instruct CBP to collect cash deposits of estimated CVDs, in the 
amounts shown above for each of the respective companies shown above, 
on shipments of subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of the 
final results of this review. For all non-reviewed firms, we will 
instruct CBP to continue to collect cash deposits at the most-recent 
company-specific or all-others rate applicable to the company, as 
appropriate. These cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall 
remain in effect until further notice.
    These preliminary results are issued and published in accordance 
with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 
351.221(b)(4).

    Dated: October 10, 2019.
Jeffrey I. Kessler,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Partial Rescission of Review
IV. Non-Selected Companies Under Review
V. Scope of the Order
VI. Diversification of China's Economy
VII. Subsidies Valuation
VIII. Interest Rate Benchmarks, Discount Rates, Input, and 
Electricity Benchmarks
IX. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Application of Adverse 
Inferences
X. Analysis of Programs
XI. Disclosure and Public Comment
XII. Conclusion

Appendix II

Non-Selected Companies Under Review

1. Anhui Jichi Tire Co., Ltd.
2. Bridgestone (Tianjin) Tire Co., Ltd.
3. Bridgestone Corporation.
4. Dynamic Tire Corp.
5. Fleming Limited.
6. Hankook Tire China Co., Ltd.
7. Haohua Orient International Trade Ltd.
8. Husky Tire Corp.
9. Jiangsu Hankook Tire Co., Ltd.
10. Macho Tire Corporation Limited.
11. Mayrun Tyre (Hong Kong) Limited.
12. Qingdao Fullrun Tyre Corp., Ltd.
13. Qingdao Lakesea Tyre Co., Ltd.
14. Qingdao Sunfulcess Trye Co., Ltd.
15. Riversun Industry Limited.
16. Safe &Well (HK) International Trading Limited.
17. Sailun Jinyu Group Co., Ltd.
18. Sailun Jinyu Group (Hong Kong) Co., Limited.
19. Sailun Tire International Corp.
20. Seatex International Inc.
21. Seatex PTE. Ltd.
22. Shandong Achi Tyres Co., Ltd.
23. Shandong Anchi Tyres Co., Ltd.
24. Shandong Duratti Rubber Corporation Co., Ltd.
25. Shandong Haohua Tire Co., Ltd.
26. Shandong Hengyu Science & Technology Co., Ltd.
27. Shandong Jinyu Industrial Co., Ltd.
28. Shandong Province Sanli Tire Manufactured Co., Ltd.
29. Shandong Wanda Boto Tyre Co., Ltd.
30. Triangle Tyre Co., Ltd.
31. Tyrechamp Group Co., Limited.
32. Windforce Tyre Co., Limited.
33. Winrun Tyre Co., Ltd.

[FR Doc. 2019-22765 Filed 10-17-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P