[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 192 (Thursday, October 5, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69130-69132]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-22196]



[[Page 69130]]

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-552-834]


Paper File Folders From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Final 
Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigation

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
paper file folders from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) are 
being, or likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair 
value (LTFV). The period of investigation is April 1, 2022, through 
September 30, 2022.

DATES: Applicable October 5, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Horn or Jinny Ahn, 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) 482-4868 or (202) 
482-0339, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On May 17, 2023, Commerce published its preliminary affirmative 
determination in the LTFV investigation of paper file folders from 
Vietnam.\1\ On June 20, 2023, Commerce published its Amended 
Preliminary Determination to correct a significant ministerial 
error.\2\ For a complete description of the events that followed the 
Preliminary Determination, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.\3\
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    \1\ See Paper File Folders from the Socialist Republic of 
Vietnam: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than 
Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of 
Provisional Measures, 88 FR 31488 (May 17, 2023) (Preliminary 
Determination), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum 
(PDM).
    \2\ See Paper File Folders from the Socialist Republic of 
Vietnam: Amended Preliminary Determination of Less Than Fair Value 
Investigation, 88 FR 39825 (June 20, 2023) (Amended Preliminary 
Determination).
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Final 
Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation 
of Paper File Folders from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,'' 
dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues 
and Decision Memorandum).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are paper file folders 
from Vietnam. For a complete description of the scope of this 
investigation, see Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    During the course of this investigation, Commerce received scope 
comments from interested parties. Commerce issued a Preliminary Scope 
Memorandum to address these comments and set aside a period of time for 
parties to address scope issues in scope-specific case and rebuttal 
briefs.\4\ We did not receive comments from any interested parties on 
the Preliminary Scope Memorandum. We, therefore, did not make any 
changes to the scope of the investigation from the scope published in 
the Preliminary Determination, as noted in Appendix I.
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,'' 
dated May 10, 2023 (Preliminary Scope Memorandum).
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Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised by interested parties in briefs are addressed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues addressed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum is provided in Appendix II to this 
notice. The Issues and 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 Issues and Decision Memorandum can 
be accessed directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.

Vietnam-Wide Entity and Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination,\5\ Commerce 
continues to find, pursuant to sections 776(a)(1) and (a)(2)(A)-(C) of 
the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), that the use of facts 
available is warranted in determining the rate of the Vietnam-wide 
entity, which includes mandatory respondents CRE8 Direct (HK) Co., 
Limited and Fairton Asia Limited and six companies not selected for 
individual examination \6\ that did not respond to our requests for 
information. Furthermore, we continue to find that an adverse inference 
is warranted in selecting from the facts otherwise available, pursuant 
to section 776(b) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.308(a), because the 
Vietnam-wide entity, including the eight companies referred to above, 
failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of their ability to 
comply with Commerce's requests for information. For the final 
determination, consistent with the Amended Preliminary 
Determination,\7\ as AFA, we are continuing to assign the Vietnam-wide 
entity, including the above-referenced companies, the rate of 233.93 
percent, which is the highest margin alleged in the petition.\8\
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    \5\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 13-17.
    \6\ See the ``Final Determination'' section of this notice, 
infra, at footnote 13 for the names of these six companies.
    \7\ See Amended Preliminary Determination, 88 FR at 39826.
    \8\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum at the ``Vietnam-Wide 
Rate'' section for a full discussion.
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Separate Rates

    We preliminarily granted the mandatory respondent, Three-Color 
Stone Stationary (Viet Nam) Company, Limited (TCS), a separate rate in 
the Preliminary Determination based on its eligibility.\9\ No party 
commented on our preliminary separate rate determination with respect 
to TCS and we have no basis otherwise to reconsider this determination. 
Accordingly, we continue to find that TCS is eligible for a separate 
rate in the final determination.\10\
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    \9\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 12-13.
    \10\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum at the ``Separate 
Rates'' section for further discussion.
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    No party commented on our preliminary determination to deny 
separate rates to the eight companies that failed to establish their 
eligibility for a separate rate by not complying with our requests for 
information, and there is no basis otherwise to reconsider this 
determination. Accordingly, we have continued to treat these companies 
as a part of the Vietnam-wide entity.

Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our review and analysis of the comments received from 
interested parties, we made one change to the margin calculations for 
TCS.\11\ For a discussion of this change, see the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum.
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    \11\ Id.
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Combination Rates

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination and Policy Bulletin 
05.1,\12\ Commerce calculated combination rates for the sole respondent 
that is eligible for a separate rate in this investigation.
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    \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 https://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Determination

    Commerce determines that the following weighted-average dumping 
margins exist for the period April 1, 2022, through September 30, 2022:

[[Page 69131]]



------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                           Estimated
                                                        weighted-average
           Exporter                    Producer          dumping margin
                                                           (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Three-Color Stone Stationary    Three-Color Stone                  97.52
 (Viet Nam) Company Limited.     Stationary (Viet
                                 Nam) Company Limited.
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               Vietnam-Wide Entity \13\                           233.93
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclosure
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    \13\ The Vietnam-wide entity includes the following companies: 
Vietnam Cailan Industry Co., Ltd.; Changyuan Vietnam Co., Ltd.; Deli 
Vietnam Co., Ltd.; Fuda Stationery (Vietnam) Factory; Guangbo 
Vietnam Company, Ltd.; Teamade Stationery Vietnam Co., Ltd.; CRE8 
Direct (HK) Co., Limited; and Fairton Asia Limited.
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    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

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, we will 
instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to 
suspend liquidation of all entries of paper file folders from Vietnam, 
as described in Appendix I of this notice, which are entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after May 17, 2023, the 
date of publication in the Federal Register of the affirmative 
Preliminary Determination.
    Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(d), 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 combination listed in the table 
above will be the rate identified in the table; (2) for all 
combinations of Vietnamese 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 Vietnam-wide 
entity; and (3) for all non-Vietnamese 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 Vietnamese 
exporter/producer combination that supplied that non-Vietnamese 
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 
countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding where appropriate. Because there 
is no companion CVD proceeding, we have not made any such adjustments 
for this final determination.

U.S. 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 Vietnam 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 antidumping duty order, in 
accordance with section 736(a) of the Act, 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, as discussed above in the ``Continuation of Suspension of 
Liquidation'' section.

Administrative Protective Order

    This notice will serve as a reminder to the parties subject to an 
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) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.210(c).

    Dated: September 29, 2023.
Lisa W. Wang,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I--Scope of the Investigation

    The products within the scope of the investigation are file 
folders consisting primarily of paper, paperboard, pressboard, or 
other cellulose material, whether coated or uncoated, that has been 
folded (or creased in preparation to be folded), glued, taped, 
bound, or otherwise assembled to be suitable for holding documents. 
The scope includes all such folders, regardless of color, whether or 
not expanding, whether or not laminated, and with or without tabs, 
fasteners, closures, hooks, rods, hangers, pockets, gussets, or 
internal dividers. The term ``primarily'' as used in the first 
sentence of this scope means 50 percent or more of the total product 
weight, exclusive of the weight of fasteners, closures, hooks, rods, 
hangers, removable tabs, and similar accessories, and exclusive of 
the weight of packaging.
    Subject folders have the following dimensions in their folded 
and closed position: lengths and widths of at least 8 inches and no 
greater than 17 inches, regardless of depth.
    The scope covers all varieties of folders, including but not 
limited to manila folders, hanging folders, fastener folders, 
classification folders, expanding folders, pockets, jackets, and 
wallets.
    Excluded from the scope are:
     mailing envelopes with a flap bearing one or more 
adhesive strips that can be used permanently to seal the entire 
length of a side such that, when sealed, the folder is closed on all 
four sides;
     binders, with two or more rings to hold documents in 
place, made from paperboard or pressboard encased entirely in 
plastic;
     binders consisting of a front cover, back cover, and 
spine, with or without a flap; to be excluded, a mechanism with two 
or more metal rings must be included on or adjacent to the interior 
spine;
     non-expanding folders with a depth exceeding 2.5 inches 
and that are closed or closeable on the top, bottom, and all four 
sides (e.g., boxes or cartons);

[[Page 69132]]

     expanding folders that have (1) 13 or more pockets, (2) 
a flap covering the top, (3) a latching mechanism made of plastic 
and/or metal to close the flap, and (4) an affixed plastic or metal 
carry handle;
     folders that have an outer surface (other than the 
gusset, handles, and/or closing mechanisms, if any) that is covered 
entirely with fabric, leather, and/or faux leather;
     fashion folders, which are defined as folders with all 
of the following characteristics: (1) plastic lamination covering 
the entire exterior of the folder, (2) printing, foil stamping, 
embossing (i.e., raised relief patterns that are recessed on the 
opposite side), and/or debossing (i.e., recessed relief patterns 
that are raised on the opposite side), covering the entire exterior 
surface area of the folder, (3) at least two visible and printed or 
foil stamped colors (other than the color of the base paper), each 
of which separately covers no less than 10 percent of the entire 
exterior surface area, and (4) patterns, pictures, designs, or 
artwork covering no less than thirty percent of the exterior surface 
area of the folder;
     portfolios, which are folders having (1) a width of at 
least 16 inches when open flat, (2) no tabs or dividers, and (3) one 
or more pockets that are suitable for holding letter size documents 
and that cover at least 15 percent of the surface area of the 
relevant interior side or sides; and
     report covers, which are folders having (1) no tabs, 
dividers, or pockets, and (2) one or more fasteners or clips, each 
of which is permanently affixed to the center fold, to hold papers 
securely in place.
    Imports of the subject merchandise are provided for under 
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) category 
4820.30.0040. Subject imports may also enter under other HTSUS 
classifications. While the HTSUS subheading is provided for 
convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the 
scope of the investigation is dispositive.

Appendix II--List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Vietnam-Wide Rate
IV. Separate Rates
V. Changes from the Preliminary Determination
VI. Discussion of the Issues
    Comment 1: Surrogate Country Selection and Selection of 
Surrogate Financial Statements
    Comment 2: Commerce's Application of the Cohen's d Test
    Comment 3: Whether to Correct a Clerical Error in the Movement 
Expense Calculation
    Comment 4: Whether to Apply Partial Adverse Facts Available 
(AFA) with Respect to Cutting Dies
VII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2023-22196 Filed 10-4-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P