[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 243 (Tuesday, December 20, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 77794-77796]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-27520]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-580-914]


Certain Superabsorbent Polymers From the Republic of Korea: 
Antidumping Duty Order

AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: Based on affirmative final determinations by the Department of 
Commerce (Commerce) and the International Trade Commission (ITC), 
Commerce is issuing the antidumping duty order on certain 
superabsorbent polymers (SAP) from the Republic of Korea (Korea).

DATES: Applicable December 20, 2022.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles DeFilippo or Elfi Blum, 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) 482-3797 or (202) 482-0197, 
respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    In accordance with sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Tariff Act 
of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.210(c), on October 27, 
2022, Commerce published its final affirmative determination in the 
less-than-fair-value (LTFV) investigation of

[[Page 77795]]

SAP from Korea.\1\ On December 8, 2022, the ITC notified Commerce of 
its final affirmative determination that an industry in the United 
States is materially injured within the meaning of section 
735(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act, by reason of LTFV imports of SAP from 
Korea.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Superabsorbent Polymers from the Republic of 
Korea: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, 87 FR 
65035 (October 27, 2022) (Final Determination), and accompanying 
Issues and Decision Memorandum.
    \2\ See ITC's Letter, ``Notification of Final Determination,'' 
dated December 8, 2022.
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Scope of the Order

    The products covered by this order are SAP from Korea. For a 
complete description of the scope of this order, see the appendix to 
this notice.

Antidumping Duty Order

    On December 8, 2022, in accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, 
the ITC notified Commerce of its final determination in this 
investigation, in which it found that an industry in the United States 
is materially injured within the meaning of section 735(b)(1)(A)(i) of 
the Act by reason of LTFV imports of SAP from Korea.\3\ Therefore, in 
accordance with section 735(c)(2) of the Act, Commerce is issuing this 
antidumping duty order. Because the ITC determined that imports of SAP 
from Korea are materially injuring a U.S. industry, unliquidated 
entries of such merchandise from Korea, entered or withdrawn from 
warehouse for consumption, are subject to the assessment of antidumping 
duties.
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    \3\ Id.
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    As a result of the ITC's final affirmative determination, in 
accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act, Commerce will direct U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess, upon further instruction 
by Commerce, antidumping duties equal to the amount by which the normal 
value of the merchandise exceeds the export price or constructed export 
price of the merchandise, for all relevant entries of SAP from Korea. 
Antidumping duties will be assessed on unliquidated entries of SAP from 
Korea entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after 
June 7, 2022, the date of publication of the Preliminary 
Determination,\4\ but will not include entries occurring after the 
expiration of the provisional measures period and before publication of 
the ITC's final injury determination, as further described below.
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    \4\ See Certain Superabsorbent Polymers from the Republic of 
Korea: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than 
Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination and Extension of 
Provisional Measures, 87 FR 34647 (June 7, 2022) (Preliminary 
Determination).
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Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    Except as noted in the ``Provisional Measures'' section of this 
notice, in accordance with section 736 of the Act, Commerce will 
instruct CBP to continue to suspend liquidation of all relevant entries 
of SAP from Korea, as described in the Appendix to this notice, which 
are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after 
the date of publication of the ITC's notice of final determination in 
the Federal Register. These instructions suspending liquidation will 
remain in effect until further notice.
    Commerce will also instruct CBP to require cash deposits equal to 
the estimated weighted-average dumping margins included in the table 
below. Accordingly, effective on the date of publication in the Federal 
Register of the notice of the ITC's final affirmative injury 
determination, CBP will require, at the same time as importers would 
normally deposit Customs duties on subject merchandise, a cash deposit 
equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margins listed in the 
tables below. The all-others rate applies to all producers or exporters 
not specifically listed.

Estimated Weighted-Average Dumping Margins

    The estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                               Estimated
                                                               weighted-
                                                                average
                      Exporter/Producer                         dumping
                                                                margin
                                                               (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LG Chem, Ltd................................................       17.64
All Others..................................................       17.64
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Provisional Measures

    Section 733(d) of the Act states that suspension of liquidation 
pursuant to an affirmative preliminary determination may not remain in 
effect for more than four months, except that Commerce may extend the 
four-month period to no more than six months at the request of 
exporters representing a significant portion of exports of the subject 
merchandise. At the request of an exporter that accounts for a 
significant proportion of SAP from Korea, Commerce extended the four-
month period to six months in the Preliminary Determination, published 
on June 7, 2022.\5\ Therefore, the extended provisional measures 
period, beginning on the date of publication of the Preliminary 
Determination, ended on December 3, 2022. Pursuant to section 737(b) of 
the Act, the collection of cash deposits at the rates listed above will 
begin on the date of publication of the ITC's final injury 
determination.
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    \5\ See Preliminary Determination.
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    Therefore, in accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act and our 
practice, we will instruct CBP to terminate the suspension of 
liquidation and to liquidate, without regard to antidumping duties, 
unliquidated entries of SAP from Korea, entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after December 4, 2022, the first day 
provisional measures were no longer in effect, until and through the 
day preceding the date of publication of the ITC's final injury 
determination in the Federal Register.

Establishment of the Annual Inquiry Service Lists

    On September 20, 2021, Commerce published the final rule titled 
``Regulations to Improve Administration and Enforcement of Antidumping 
and Countervailing Duty Laws'' in the Federal Register.\6\ On September 
27, 2021, Commerce also published the notice titled ``Scope Ruling 
Application; Annual Inquiry Service List; and Informational Sessions'' 
in the Federal Register.\7\ The Final Rule and Procedural Guidance 
provide that Commerce will maintain an annual inquiry service list for 
each order or suspended investigation, and any interested party 
submitting a scope ruling application or request for circumvention 
inquiry shall serve a copy of the application or request on the persons 
on the annual inquiry service list for that order, as well as any 
companion order covering the same merchandise from the same country of 
origin.\8\ In accordance with the Procedural Guidance, for orders 
published in the Federal Register after November 4, 2021, Commerce will 
create an annual inquiry service list segment in Commerce's online e-
filing and document management system, Antidumping and Countervailing 
Duty Electronic Service System (ACCESS), available at https://access.trade.gov, within five business days of publication

[[Page 77796]]

of the notice of the order. Each annual inquiry service list will be 
saved in ACCESS, under each case number, and under a specific segment 
type called ``AISL-Annual Inquiry Service List.'' \9\
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    \6\ See Regulations to Improve Administration and Enforcement of 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws, 86 FR 52300 (September 20, 
2021) (Final Rule).
    \7\ See Scope Ruling Application; Annual Inquiry Service List; 
and Informational Sessions, 86 FR 53205 (September 27, 2021) 
(Procedural Guidance).
    \8\ Id.
    \9\ This segment will be combined with the ACCESS Segment 
Specific Information (SSI) field which will display the month in 
which the notice of the order or suspended investigation was 
published in the Federal Register, also known as the anniversary 
month. For example, for an order under case number A-000-000 that 
was published in the Federal Register in January, the relevant 
segment and SSI combination will appear in ACCESS as ``AISL-January 
Anniversary.'' Note that there will be only one annual inquiry 
service list segment per case number, and the anniversary month will 
be pre-populated in ACCESS.
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    Interested parties who wish to be added to the annual inquiry 
service list for an order must submit an entry of appearance to the 
annual inquiry service list segment for the order in ACCESS within 30 
days after the date of publication of the order. For ease of 
administration, Commerce requests that law firms with more than one 
attorney representing interested parties in an order designate a lead 
attorney to be included on the annual inquiry service list. Commerce 
will finalize the annual inquiry service list within five business days 
thereafter. As mentioned in the Procedural Guidance, the new annual 
inquiry service list will be in place until the following year, when 
the Opportunity Notice for the anniversary month of the order is 
published.
    Commerce may update an annual inquiry service list at any time as 
needed based on interested parties' amendments to their entries of 
appearance to remove or otherwise modify their list of members and 
representatives, or to update contact information. Any changes or 
announcements pertaining to these procedures will be posted to the 
ACCESS website at https://access.trade.gov.

Special Instructions for Petitioners and Foreign Governments

    In the Final Rule, Commerce stated that, ``after an initial request 
and placement on the annual inquiry service list, both petitioners and 
foreign governments will automatically be placed on the annual inquiry 
service list in the years that follow.'' \10\ Accordingly, as stated 
above, the petitioner and Government of Korea should submit their 
initial entry of appearance after publication of this notice in order 
to appear in the first annual inquiry service list for this order. 
Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.225(n)(3), the petitioner and the Government of 
Korea will not need to resubmit their entries of appearance each year 
to continue to be included on the annual inquiry service list. However, 
the petitioner and the Government of Korea are responsible for making 
amendments to their entries of appearance during the annual update to 
the annual inquiry service list in accordance with the procedures 
described above.
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    \10\ See Final Rule, 86 FR at 52335.
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Notification to Interested Parties

    This notice constitutes the antidumping duty order with respect to 
SAP from Korea, pursuant to section 736(a) of the Act. Interested 
parties can find a list of antidumping duty orders currently in effect 
at https://enforcement.trade.gov/stats/iastats1.html.
    This order is issued and published in accordance with section 
736(a) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.211(b).

    Dated: December 13, 2022.
Lisa W. Wang,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix--Scope of the Order

    The merchandise covered by this order is superabsorbent polymers 
(SAP), which is cross-linked sodium polyacrylate most commonly 
conforming to Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) registry number 9003-
04-7, where at least 90 percent of the dry matter, by weight on a 
nominal basis, corrected for moisture content, is comprised of a 
polymer with a chemical formula of 
(C3H3O2NaxH1-x
)n, where x is within a range of 0.00--1.00 and there is 
no limit to n. The subject merchandise also includes merchandise 
with a chemical formula of 
{(C2H3)COONayH(1-y){time} 
n, where y is within a range of 0.00--1.00 and there is 
no limit to n. The subject merchandise includes SAP which is fully 
neutralized as well as SAP that is not fully neutralized.
    The subject merchandise may also conform to CAS numbers 25549-
84-2, 77751-27-0, 9065-11-6, 9033-79-8, 164715-58-6, 445299-36-5, 
912842-45-6, 561012-86-0, 561012-85-9, or 9003-01-4.
    All forms and sizes of SAP, regardless of packaging type, 
including but not limited to granules, pellets, powder, fibers, 
flakes, liquid, or gel are within the scope of this order. The scope 
also includes SAP whether or not it incorporates additives for 
anticaking, anti-odor, anti-yellowing, or similar functions.
    The scope also includes SAP that is combined, commingled, or 
mixed with other products after final sieving. For such combined 
products, only the SAP component is covered by the scope of this 
order. SAP that has been combined with other products is included 
within the scope, regardless of whether the combining occurs in 
third countries. A combination is excluded from this order if the 
total SAP component of the combination (regardless of the source or 
sources) comprises less than 50 percent of the combination, on a 
nominal dry weight basis.
    SAP is classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the 
United States (HTSUS) subheading 3906.90.5000. SAP may also enter 
the United States under HTSUS 3906.10.0000. Although the HTSUS 
subheadings and CAS registry numbers are provided for convenience 
and customs purposes, the written description of the merchandise is 
dispositive.

[FR Doc. 2022-27520 Filed 12-19-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P