[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 2, 2020)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33623-33626]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-11891]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-112]


Certain Collated Steel Staples From the People's Republic of 
China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value 
and Final Affirmative Critical Circumstances Determination

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that imports 
of certain collated steel staples (collated staples) from the People's 
Republic of China (China) are being, or are likely to be, sold in the 
United States at less than fair value (LTFV).

DATES: Applicable June 2, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sergio Balbontin or William Horn, AD/
CVD Operations, Office VIII, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-6478 or (202) 
482-4868, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Commerce published the Preliminary Determination in the LTFV 
investigation of collated staples from China on January 8, 2020.\1\ For 
a complete description of the events that followed the Preliminary 
Determination, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Collated Steel Staples from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of 
Critical Circumstances, Postponement of Final Determination and 
Extension of Provisional Measures, 85 FR 882 (January 8, 2020) 
(Preliminary Determination), and accompanying Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum (PDM).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Certain Collated Steel Staples from the 
People's Republic of China: Issues and Decision Memorandum for the 
Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value,'' 
dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues 
and Decision Memorandum).
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    Period of Investigation
    The period of investigation is October 1, 2018 through March 31, 
2019.
    Scope of the Investigation
    The products covered by this investigation are collated staples 
from China. For a complete description of the scope of this 
investigation, see Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    On November 4, 2019, we issued a Preliminary Scope Memorandum 
making no changes to the scope of this and the companion countervailing 
duty (CVD) investigation.\3\ For a summary of the product coverage 
comments and rebuttal comments submitted to the record for this final 
determination, and accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments 
timely received, see the Final Scope Decision Memorandum.\4\ Based on 
the comments received from interested parties, we are revising the 
scope of this investigation to exclude ``hog rings.'' The scope in 
Appendix I reflects this change.
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    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Less-Than-Fair-Value and Countervailing 
Duty Investigations of Certain Collated Steel Staples from the 
People's Republic of China: Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,'' 
dated November 4, 2019 (Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum).
    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Certain Collated Steel Staples from the 
People's Republic of China: Final Scope Determination Decision 
Memorandum,'' dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this 
notice (Final Scope Decision Memorandum).
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Verification

    Commerce normally verifies information relied upon in making its 
final determination, pursuant to section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 
1930, as amended (the Act). However, on March 16, 2020, Commerce 
cancelled verification of the questionnaire responses submitted by 
Tianjin Hweschun Fasteners Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Tianjin 
Hweschun).\5\ During the course of this investigation, a Level 4 travel 
advisory was imposed for all of China, preventing Commerce personnel 
from traveling to China to conduct verification. Due to this, as well 
as the impending statutory deadline for the completion of the final 
determination, Commerce was unable to conduct verification in this 
case.
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    \5\ See Memorandum, ``Cancellation of Verification,'' dated 
March 16, 2020.
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    Pursuant to section 776(a)(2)(D) of the Act, in situations where 
information has been provided but the information cannot be verified, 
Commerce may use ``facts otherwise available'' in reaching the 
applicable determination. Accordingly, as Commerce was unable to 
proceed to verification in this investigation, we have relied on the 
information submitted on the record that we used in making the 
Preliminary Determination, as facts available in making our final 
determination.

Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

    Commerce preliminarily determined in this investigation that 
critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of collated 
staples from China shipped by Tianjin Hweschun, Tianjin Jin Xin Sheng 
Long Metal Products Co.,

[[Page 33624]]

Ltd. (Tianjin JXSL), the non-individually examined respondents, and the 
China-wide entity.\6\ That determination remains unchanged and a 
discussion of our final critical circumstances determination can be 
found in the Issues and Decision Memorandum.
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    \6\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 30.
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Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs that were 
submitted by parties in this investigation are addressed in the Issues 
and Decision Memorandum. For a list of the issues raised by interested 
parties and addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum, see 
Appendix II to this notice. The Issues and Decision Memorandum is a 
public document and is made available to the public 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. In addition, a complete version of the Issues 
and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at https://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/index.html. The signed and electronic 
versions of the Issues and Decision Memorandum are identical in 
content.

China-Wide Entity and Use of Adverse Facts Available

    We continue to find that the use of facts available is warranted in 
determining the rate of the China-wide entity pursuant to sections 
776(a)(1) and (a)(2)(A)-(C) of the Act. Further, use of adverse facts 
available (AFA) is warranted because the China-wide entity did not 
cooperate to the best of its ability to comply with our requests for 
information and, accordingly, we applied adverse inferences in 
selecting from the facts available, pursuant to section 776(b) of the 
Act and 19 CFR 351.308(a). For the final determination, we are 
assigning the China-wide entity, as AFA, the rate of 122.55 percent, 
which is the highest petition rate.\7\
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    \7\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum at 3-5 for a full 
discussion of this issue; see also Preliminary Determination PDM at 
16-18.
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Separate Rates

    As discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum, we granted 
Tianjin Hweschun, Tianjin JXSL, and six non-individually examined 
respondents \8\ a separate rate in the Preliminary Determination based 
on their eligibility.\9\ No parties commented on this preliminary 
finding and the facts have not changed with respect to these companies' 
separate rate eligibility. Therefore, we continue to grant separate 
rates to these companies in this final determination. As discussed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum, we assigned Tianjin JXSL, as AFA, 
the highest petition rate.
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    \8\ These companies are China Staple (Tianjin) Co., Ltd., 
Shanghai Yueda Nails Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang Shuangming Trade Co., 
Ltd., Tianjin Jinyifeng Hardware Co., Ltd., Unicorn Fasteners Co., 
Ltd., and Zhejiang Best Nail Industrial Co., Ltd.
    \9\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 10--14.
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    In accordance with section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, Commerce shall 
determine an estimated separate rate for companies not individually 
examined. Generally, under section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, this rate 
shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated 
antidumping duty (AD) rates established for those companies 
individually examined, excluding any zero and de minimis rates and any 
rates based entirely under section 776 of the Act. However, section 
735(c)(5)(B) of the Act provides that if the AD duty rates established 
for all companies individually examined are zero or de minimis rates, 
or are determined entirely under section 776 of the Act, then Commerce 
may use ``any reasonable method'' to establish a separate rate, 
``including averaging the weighted-average anti-dumping duty rates 
determined for the exporters and producers individually investigated.''
    The sole calculated AD rate for this final determination is based 
on facts otherwise available. As explained above, the sole cooperative 
mandatory respondent in this investigation, Tianjin Hweschun, is 
receiving a rate based entirely on the facts available. In the specific 
circumstances of this case, because we were unable to verify Tianjin 
Hweschun, we find that a reasonable method to determine the all-others 
rate under section 735(c)(5)(B) of the Act here is to apply Tianjin 
Hweschun's individual estimated AD rate as the separate rate for 
companies not individually examined.

Changes From the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our analysis of the comments received, we made certain 
changes to the dumping margin calculations for Tianjin Hweschun.\10\ 
For a discussion of these changes, see the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum. In light of our method in this investigation for 
determining the separate rate for companies not individually examined, 
we have also modified the separate rate.
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    \10\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum.
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Combination Rates

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination\11\ and Policy 
Bulletin 05.1,\12\ Commerce calculated combination rates for the 
respondents that are eligible for a separate rate in this 
investigation.
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    \11\ See Preliminary Determination.
    \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,'' dated 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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Final Determination

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

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                                                                                     Estimated     Cash deposit
                                                                                     weighted-    rate (adjusted
                   Producer                                 Exporter                  average       for subsidy
                                                                                  dumping margin     offsets)
                                                                                     (percent)       (percent)
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Tianjin Hweschun Fasteners Manufacturing Co.,   Tianjin Hweschun Fasteners                 96.15           85.61
 Ltd..                                           Manufacturing Co., Ltd..
Tianjin Jin Xin Sheng Long Metal Products Co.,  Tianjin Jin Xin Sheng Long Metal          122.55          112.01
 Ltd..                                           Products Co., Ltd..
China Staple (Tianjin) Co., Ltd...............  China Staple (Tianjin) Co., Ltd.           96.15           85.61
Shanghai Yueda Nails Co., Ltd.................  Shanghai Yueda Nails Co., Ltd...           96.15           85.61
Shijiazhuang Shuangming Trade Co., Ltd........  Shijiazhuang Shuangming Trade              96.15           85.61
                                                 Co., Ltd..
Tianjin Jinyifeng Hardware Co., Ltd...........  Tianjin Jinyifeng Hardware Co.,            96.15           85.61
                                                 Ltd..
Unicorn Fasteners Co., Ltd....................  Unicorn Fasteners Co., Ltd......           96.15           85.61
Zhejiang Best Nail Industrial Co., Ltd........  Zhejiang Best Nail Industrial              96.15           85.61
                                                 Co., Ltd..
China-Wide Entity...............................................................          122.55          112.01
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[[Page 33625]]

Disclosure

    We intend to disclose to parties in this proceeding the 
calculations performed for this final determination within five days of 
the date of publication of this notice, in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.224(b).

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    As a result of our Preliminary Determination and pursuant to 
section 733(e)(2)(A) of the Act, we will instruct U.S. Customs and 
Border Protection (CBP) to continue to suspend liquidation of all 
entries of collated staples from China, except for hog rings, as 
described in Appendix I of this notice, entered or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on October 10, 2019, which is 90 days before 
the date of publication of the Preliminary Determination in the Federal 
Register.
    With respect to hog rings, we will instruct CBP to discontinue 
suspension of liquidation of such merchandise effective the date of 
publication of this determination. In addition, we will direct CBP to 
liquidate any suspended entries of this merchandise without regard to 
AD duties and to refund any cash deposits with respect to these 
entries.
    Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act, upon the 
publication of this notice, Commerce will instruct CBP to require a 
cash deposit equal to the weighted-average amount by which the normal 
value exceeds U.S. price as follows: (1) The cash deposit rate for the 
exporter/producer combinations listed in the table above will be the 
rate identified in the table; (2) for all combinations of Chinese 
exporters/producers of subject merchandise that have not received their 
own separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be the cash deposit 
rate established for the China-wide entity; and (3) for all non-Chinese 
exporters of subject merchandise which have not received their own 
separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be the cash deposit 
rate applicable to the Chinese exporter/producer combination that 
supplied that non-Chinese exporter. These suspension of liquidation 
instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
    To determine the cash deposit rate, Commerce normally adjusts the 
estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the amount of domestic 
subsidy pass-through and export subsidies determined in a companion CVD 
proceeding when CVD provisional measures are in effect. Accordingly, 
where Commerce makes an affirmative determination for domestic subsidy 
pass-through or export subsidies, Commerce offsets the calculated 
estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the appropriate rate(s). 
In this case, we made a negative finding for domestic subsidy pass-
through for all respondents in the Preliminary Determination, which 
remains unchanged for the final determination.\13\ However, with 
respect to export subsidies for all respondents, Commerce issued the 
final determination of the concurrent CVD investigation of collated 
staples from China, in which it found export-contingent subsidies of 
10.54 percent for Best Nail and 10.54 percent for all others.\14\ 
Therefore, we have deducted export subsidies from the final margins and 
adjusted the cash deposit rates in the chart above. However, suspension 
of liquidation for provisional measures in the companion CVD case has 
been discontinued; therefore, we are not instructing CBP to collect 
cash deposits based upon the adjusted estimated weighted-average 
dumping margin for those subsidies at this time.
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    \13\ See sections ``Adjustment Under Section 777A(F) of the 
Act'' and ``Adjustment to Cash Deposit Rate for Export Subsidies'' 
in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum; see also Memorandum, 
``Certain Collated Steel Staples from the People's Republic of 
China: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Issues 
and Decisions Memorandum'' dated concurrently with this notice 
(Collated Staples from China CVD IDM).
    \14\ See Collated Staples from China CVD IDM at 6.
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of our final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. 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. Because the final determination in this proceeding is 
affirmative, in accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the ITC 
will make its final determination as to whether the domestic industry 
in the United States is materially injured, or threatened with material 
injury, by reason of imports of subject merchandise from China no later 
than 45 days after our final determination. If the ITC determines that 
such injury does not exist, this proceeding will be terminated, and all 
cash deposits posted will be refunded. If the ITC determines that such 
injury does exist, Commerce will issue an AD order directing CBP to 
assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties on all 
imports of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the effective date of the 
suspension of liquidation.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Order

    This notice will serve as a reminder to the parties subject to 
administrative protective order (APO) 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 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 which is subject to 
sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is issued and published in accordance with 
sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.210(c).

    Dated: May 22, 2020.
Jeffrey I. Kessler,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by the scope of this investigation is 
certain collated steel staples. Certain collated steel staples 
subject to this investigation are made from steel wire having a 
nominal diameter from 0.0355 inch to 0.0830 inch, inclusive, and 
have a nominal leg length from 0.25 inch to 3.0 inches, inclusive, 
and a nominal crown width from 0.187 inch to 1.125 inch, inclusive. 
Certain collated steel staples may be manufactured from any type of 
steel, and are included in the scope of this investigation 
regardless of whether they are uncoated or coated, and regardless of 
the type or number of coatings, including but not limited to 
coatings to inhibit corrosion.
    Certain collated steel staples may be collated using any 
material or combination of materials, including but not limited to 
adhesive, glue, and adhesive film or adhesive or paper tape.
    Certain collated steel staples are generally made to American 
Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specification ASTM F1667-
18a, but can also be made to other specifications.
    Excluded from the scope of this investigation are any carton-
closing staples covered by the scope of the existing antidumping 
duty order on Carton-Closing Staples from the People's Republic of 
China. See Carton-Closing Staples from the People's Republic of 
China: Antidumping Duty Order, 83 FR 20792 (May 8, 2018).

[[Page 33626]]

    Also excluded are collated fasteners commonly referred to as 
``C-ring hog rings'' and ``D-ring hog rings'' produced from 
stainless or carbon steel wire having a nominal diameter of 0.050 to 
0.081 inches, inclusive. C-ring hog rings are fasteners whose legs 
are not perpendicular to the crown, but are curved inward resulting 
in the fastener forming the shape of the letter ``C''. D-ring hog 
rings are fasteners whose legs are straight but not perpendicular to 
the crown, instead intersecting with the crown at an angle ranging 
from 30 degrees to 75 degrees. The hog rings subject to the 
exclusion are collated using glue, adhesive, or tape. The hog rings 
subject to this exclusion have either a 90 degree blunt point or 15-
75 degree divergent point.
    Certain collated steel staples subject to this investigation are 
currently classifiable under subheading 8305.20.0000 of the 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). While the 
HTSUS subheading and ASTM specification are provided for convenience 
and for customs purposes, the written description of the subject 
merchandise is dispositive.

Appendix II

List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Final Determination of Critical Circumstances
IV. China-Wide Rate
V. Separate Rates
VI. Adjustments for Countervailable Export Subsidies
VII. Changes Since the Preliminary Determination
VIII. Discussion of the Issues
    Comment 1: Whether Critical Circumstances Exist
    Comment 2: Primary Surrogate Country Selection
    Comment 3: Whether To Accept Non-Verified Record Information as 
Verified
    Comment 4: Whether To Continue to Apply Adverse Facts Available 
(AFA) to Tianjin JXSL
    Comment 5: Whether To Use the Reported Factors of Production 
(FOP) Data of Tianjin Hweschun's Cooperative Toller
    Comment 6: Whether To Use the FOPs of Tianjin Hweschun's 
Cooperative Toller as Facts Available for the Uncooperative Toller
IX. Recommendation
[FR Doc. 2020-11891 Filed 6-1-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P