[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 84 (Tuesday, May 4, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 23672-23675]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-09321]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-831-804]


Certain Aluminum Foil From the Republic of Armenia: 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 certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from the Republic of Armenia 
(Armenia) 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, 2020, through June 30, 2020. Interested parties are invited 
to comment on this preliminary determination.

DATES: Applicable May 4, 2021.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Margaret Collins or George McMahon, 
AD/CVD Operations, Office VI, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-6250 or (202) 
482-1167, 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). On September 
29, 2020, the Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group and 
its individual members \1\ (collectively, the petitioners) requested 
the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum 
foil from five countries.\2\

[[Page 23673]]

Commerce published the notice of initiation of this investigation on 
October 19, 2020.\3\ On February 17, 2021, Commerce postponed the 
preliminary determination of this investigation, and the revised 
deadline is now April 27, 2021.\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 included 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 Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). 
ACCESS is available to registered users at https://access.trade.gov. In 
addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can 
be accessed directly at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/.
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    \1\ The individual members of the Aluminum Association Trade 
Enforcement Group include Granges Americas Inc, JW Aluminum Company 
and Novelis Corporation. The petitioners indicated that Novelis 
Corporation acquired Aleris Corporation (including all of Aleris' 
aluminum foil-related operations), effective April 14, 2020.
    \2\ See Petitioners' submission ``Certain Aluminum Foil from 
Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey--Petition for the 
Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties,'' dated 
September 29, 2020.
    \3\ See Certain Aluminum Foil from the Republic of Armenia, 
Brazil, the Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, and the 
Republic of Turkey: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigations, 85 FR 67711 (October 26, 2020) (Initiation Notice).
    \4\ See Certain Aluminum Foil from the Republic of Armenia, 
Brazil, the Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, and the 
Republic of Turkey: Postponement of Preliminary Determinations in 
the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations, 86 FR 9909 (February 17, 
2021).
    \5\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary 
Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation of Certain 
Aluminum Foil from the Republic of Armenia,'' 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 aluminum foil from 
Armenia. 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 (i.e., 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\ As 
discussed in the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum, Commerce is 
preliminarily not modifying the scope language as it appeared in the 
Initiation Notice.
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    \6\ See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule, 
62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997) (Preamble).
    \7\ See Initiation Notice.
    \8\ See Memorandum, ``Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Investigations of Certain Aluminum Foil from the Republic of 
Armenia, Brazil, the Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, and 
the Republic of Turkey: Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,'' 
dated concurrently with this notice (Preliminary Scope Decision 
Memorandum).
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    The Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum establishes the deadline 
to submit scope case briefs.\9\ There will be no further opportunity 
for comments on scope-related issues.
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    \9\ Case briefs, other written comments, and rebuttal briefs 
submitted by parties in response to this preliminary LTFV 
determination should not include scope-related issues. See 
Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum, and ``Public Comment'' 
section of this notice.
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Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with 
section 731 of the Act. Commerce has calculated export prices in 
accordance with section 772(a) of the Act. Because Armenia is a non-
market economy, within the meaning of section 771(18) of the Act, 
Commerce has calculated normal value (NV) in accordance with section 
773(c) of the Act. For a full description of the methodology underlying 
Commerce's preliminary determination, see the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum.

Combination Rates

    In the Initiation Notice,\10\ Commerce stated that it 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.\11\ In this investigation, we calculated 
producer/exporter combination rates for Armenal, the only respondent 
eligible for a separate rate.
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    \10\ See Initiation Notice.
    \11\ 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
           Producer                   Exporter          dumping margin
                                                           (percent)
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Rusal Armenal CJSC...........  Rusal Products GmbH..              188.84
Rusal Armenal CJSC...........  Rusal Marketing GmbH.              188.84
Armenia-Wide Entity..........  .....................              188.84
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 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.
    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 producer/exporter 
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 Armenia 
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 Armenia-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 
Armenia producer/exporter combination (or the Armenia-wide entity) that 
supplied that

[[Page 23674]]

third-country exporter. These suspension of liquidation instructions 
will remain in effect until further notice.

Disclosure

    Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis 
performed to interested parties in this preliminary determination 
within five days of any 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 the information relied upon in making its final determination. 
Normally, Commerce verifies information using standard procedures, 
including an on-site examination of original accounting, financial, and 
sales documentation. However, due to current travel restrictions in 
response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Commerce is unable to conduct 
on-site verification in this investigation. Accordingly, we intend to 
verify the information relied upon in making the final determination 
through alternative means in lieu of an on-site verification.

Public Comment

    Case briefs or other written comments on non-scope issues may be 
submitted to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance. A 
timeline for the submission of case briefs and written comments will be 
provided to interested parties at a later date. Rebuttal briefs, 
limited to issues raised in case briefs, may be submitted no later than 
seven days after the deadline date for case briefs.\12\ 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. Commerce has modified certain 
of its requirements for serving documents containing business 
proprietary information until further notice.\13\
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    \12\ See 19 CFR 351.309; see also 19 CFR 351.303 (for general 
filing requirements); see also Temporary Rule Modifying AD/CVD 
Service Requirements Due to COVID-19, 85 FR 17006 (March 26, 2020) 
(Temporary Rule); and Temporary Rule Modifying AD/CVD Service 
Requirements Due to COVID-19; Extension of Effective Period, 85 FR 
41363 (July 10, 2020).
    \13\ See Temporary Rule.
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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 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 petitioner. Section 351.210(e)(2) of Commerce's regulations 
requires that a request by exporters for postponement of the final 
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.
    On March 23, 2021, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.210(e), Armenal requested 
that Commerce postpone the final determination and that provisional 
measures be extended to a period not to exceed six months.\14\ 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 
will make its final determination no later than 135 days after the date 
of publication of this preliminary determination, pursuant to section 
735(a)(2) of the Act.
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    \14\ See Armenal's Letter, ``Certain Aluminum Foil from Armenia: 
Armenal's Request for Postponement for Final Antidumping 
Determination,'' dated March 23, 2021.
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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. 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 27, 2021.
Christian Marsh,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

[[Page 23675]]

Appendix I--Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is aluminum foil 
having a thickness of 0.2 mm or less, in reels exceeding 25 pounds, 
regardless of width. Aluminum foil is made from an aluminum alloy 
that contains more than 92 percent aluminum. Aluminum foil may be 
made to ASTM specification ASTM B479, but can also be made to other 
specifications. Regardless of specification, however, all aluminum 
foil meeting the scope description is included in the scope, 
including aluminum foil to which lubricant has been applied to one 
or both sides of the foil.
    Excluded from the scope of this investigation is aluminum foil 
that is backed with paper, paperboard, plastics, or similar backing 
materials on one side or both sides of the aluminum foil, as well as 
etched capacitor foil and aluminum foil that is cut to shape. Where 
the nominal and actual measurements vary, a product is within the 
scope if application of either the nominal or actual measurement 
would place it within the scope based on the definitions set forth 
above. The products under investigation are currently classifiable 
under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) 
subheadings 7607.11.3000, 7607.11.6090, 7607.11.9030, 7607.11.9060, 
7607.11.9090, and 7607.19.6000.
    Further, merchandise that falls within the scope of this 
proceeding may also be entered into the United States under HTSUS 
subheadings 7606.11.3060, 7606.11.6000, 7606.12.3045, 7606.12.3055, 
7606.12.3091, 7606.12.3096, 7606.12.6000, 7606.91.3095, 
7606.91.6095, 7606.92.3035, and 7606.92.6095. Although the HTSUS 
subheadings are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the 
written description of the scope of this investigation is 
dispositive.

Appendix II--List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Period of Investigation
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. Scope Comments
VI. Affiliation
VII. Discussion of the Methodology
VIII. Currency Conversion
IX. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2021-09321 Filed 5-3-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P