[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 178 (Friday, September 13, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74904-74906]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20773]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-915]


Light-Walled Rectangular Pipe and Tube From the People's Republic 
of China: Preliminary Results and Preliminary Determination of No 
Shipments; 2022

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

SUMMARY: The U.S Department of Commerce (Commerce) is conducting the 
administrative review of the countervailing duty (CVD) order on light-
walled rectangular pipe and tube (LWRPT) from the People's Republic of 
China (China). The period of review (POR) is January 1, 2022, through 
December 31, 2022. Commerce preliminarily finds that Hoa Phat Steel 
Pipe Company Limited (Hoa Phat) had no subject shipments of LWRPT and 
that Hoa Phat will be eligible to participate in the certification 
program previously established with respect to the CVD order on LWRPT 
from China. We invite interested parties to comment on these 
preliminary results.

DATES: Applicable September 13, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Christopher Hargett, AD/CVD 
Operations, Office II, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4161.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On August 5, 2008, Commerce published in the Federal Register the 
CVD order on LWRPT from China.\1\ On August 2, 2023, Commerce notified 
interested parties of the opportunity to request an administrative 
review of the Order.\2\ On August 30, 2023, Hoa Phat requested that 
Commerce conduct an administrative review of its exports to

[[Page 74905]]

determine whether those exports are covered by the CVD Order on LWPRT 
from China.\3\ In its review request, Hoa Phat further explained that 
it sought an administrative review so that Commerce would permit it to 
submit certifications to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to 
properly declare the origin of the hot-rolled steel (HRS) that it used 
to produce the LWRPT it exported.\4\ On August 31, 2023, GS Global USA, 
Inc. (GS Global) requested that Commerce conduct an administrative 
review of Hoa Phat's exports.\5\
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    \1\ See Light-Walled Rectangular Pipe and Tube from the People's 
Republic of China: Countervailing Duty Order, 73 FR 45405 (August 5, 
2008) (Order).
    \2\ See Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or 
Suspended Investigation; Opportunity To Request Administrative 
Review and Join annual Inquiry Service List, 88 FR 50840 (August 2, 
2023).
    \3\ See Hoa Phat Letter, ``Request for Administrative Review,'' 
dated August 30, 2023.
    \4\ Id. As background, in Light-Walled Rectangular Pipe and Tube 
From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative 
Determination of Circumvention of the Antidumping Duty and 
Countervailing Duty Orders, 88 FR 21985-21986 (April 12, 2023) 
(Preliminary Circumvention Determination), and accompanying 
Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM) at 4-6, Commerce preliminarily 
determined that Hoa Phat had failed to cooperate in the 
circumvention proceeding and applied facts available with adverse 
inferences to determine that Hoa Phat was not eligible to 
participate in the certification regime established in the 
circumvention proceeding. In the final determination, Commerce 
continued to find that Hoa Phat was ineligible to participate in the 
certification regime. See Light-Walled Rectangular Pipe and Tube 
from the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination 
of Circumvention of the Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty 
Orders, 88 FR 77283 (November 9, 2023) (Circumvention Final 
Determination), and accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum 
(IDM) at Comment 3.
    \5\ See GS Global Letter, ``Request for Administrative Review'' 
dated August 31, 2023.
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    Subsequently, we initiated an administrative review of the Order 
with respect to Hoa Phat.\6\
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    \6\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 88 FR 71829 (October 18, 2023) (Initiation 
Notice).
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    On November 9, 2023, we published in the Federal Register the 
Circumvention Final Determination, in which we: (1) determined that 
certain LWRPT exported from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) 
and entered into the United States was circumventing the Order and 
therefore is now covered by the Order; and (2) established a 
certification program to allow eligible producers and exporters of 
LWRPT exported from Vietnam to certify that entries of LWRPT exported 
from Vietnam are not subject to the Order.\7\ We also indicated that we 
would allow interested parties to request reviews of LWRPT shipped from 
Vietnam and suspended under the Order that entered during the upcoming 
anniversary month of the Order (i.e., August).\8\
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    \7\ See Circumvention Final Determination, 88 FR at 77284.
    \8\ Id., 88 FR at 77285.
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    Due to the common prerequisite issues in the concurrent 
administrative reviews of the antidumping duty (AD) and CVD orders, 
i.e., the origin of the HRS used in Hoa Phat's production and/export of 
LWRPT and whether Hoa Phat is eligible to certify that origin with CBP, 
on March 11, 2024, Commerce notified all interested parties of its 
intent to address Hoa Phat's certification eligibility in the CVD 
administrative review in the context of the concurrent AD review of Hoa 
Phat and adopt the AD findings in the CVD review.\9\ Commerce also 
instructed all interested parties to file any future submissions that 
related to this issue on the record of both proceedings. Additionally, 
regarding previously filed submissions related to these issues that 
were only on the record of the AD administrative review, Commerce 
instructed all interested parties who filed such submissions to file 
those submissions on the record of the CVD administrative review.\10\
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    \9\ See Memorandum, ``Notification of Procedure for Determining 
Certification Eligibility in Administrative Reviews of the 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders,'' dated March 11, 2024 
(Notification of Procedure Memorandum).
    \10\ Id.
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    On April 12, 2024, Commerce extended the deadline for these 
preliminary results to August 30, 2024.\11\ On July 22, 2024, Commerce 
tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven 
days.\12\ The deadline for the preliminary results is now September 6, 
2024.
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    \11\ See Memorandum, ``Extension of Deadline for Preliminary 
Results of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review,'' dated April 
12, 2024.
    \12\ See Memorandum, ``Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Proceedings,'' dated July 22, 2024.
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Scope of the Order

    The merchandise subject to this Order is certain welded carbon 
quality light-walled steel pipe and tube, of rectangular (including 
square) cross section, having a wall thickness of less than 4 mm. The 
term carbon-quality steel includes both carbon steel and alloy steel 
which contains only small amounts of alloying elements. Specifically, 
the term carbon-quality includes products in which none of the elements 
listed below exceeds the quantity by weight respectively indicated: 
1.80 percent of manganese, or 2.25 percent of silicon, or 1.00 percent 
of copper, or 0.50 percent of aluminum, or 1.25 percent of chromium, or 
0.30 percent of cobalt, or 0.40 percent of lead, or 1.25 percent of 
nickel, or 0.30 percent of tungsten, or 0.10 percent of molybdenum, or 
0.10 percent of niobium, or 0.15 percent vanadium, or 0.15 percent of 
zirconium. The description of carbon-quality is intended to identify 
carbon-quality products within the scope. The welded carbon-quality 
rectangular pipe and tube subject to this Order is currently classified 
under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) 
subheadings 7306.61.50.00 and 7306.61.70.60. While HTSUS subheadings 
are provided for convenience and CBP's customs purposes, our written 
description of the scope of the Order is dispositive.

Methodology

    For the preliminary results of this CVD review, Commerce is hereby 
adopting the preliminary finding and Preliminary Decision Memorandum 
issued in the concurrent AD administrative review only with respect to 
Hoa Phat. For a full description of the methodology underlying the 
results, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum adopted by reference, 
in this CVD review.\13\ Commerce preliminarily found that Hoa Phat had 
no subject shipments of LWRPT and is eligible to participate in the 
previously established certification program.\14\ The AD Preliminary 
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 AD Preliminary Decision Memorandum is 
available at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.
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    \13\ See unpublished Federal Register Notice entitled, ``Light-
Walled Rectangular Pipe and Tube from the People's Republic of 
China: Preliminary Results and Partial Rescission of Antidumping 
Duty Administrative Review, and Preliminary Determination of No 
Shipments; 2022-2023,'' dated concurrently with this notice, and 
accompanying PDM.
    \14\ Id.
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    Thus, if our preliminary finding in the concurrent AD 
administrative review is unchanged in the final results, we will 
determine in the final results of this CVD review that Hao Phat will be 
eligible to participate in the certification program previously 
established with respect to the CVD Order on LWRPT from China as of the 
publication date of the final results.

Public Comment

    Because Commerce intends to conduct verification of the 
questionnaire responses of Hoa Phat in the concurrent AD review, the 
results of which will be adopted in this CVD review, interested parties 
will be notified of the deadline for the

[[Page 74906]]

submission of case briefs at a later date.\15\ The case briefs 
submitted in the AD and CVD reviews must be identical, and Commerce 
will consider all case brief arguments in the concurrent AD review. As 
noted above, Commerce intends to adopt the final findings in the 
concurrent AD proceeding in the final results of this CVD 
administrative review.
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    \15\ See 19 CFR 351.303 (for general filing requirements).
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Assessment Rates

    Upon issuance of the final results of this review, Commerce will 
determine, and CBP will assess, CVD duties on all appropriate entries 
covered by this review.\16\ We intend to instruct CBP to liquidate 
entries of LWRPT exported by Hoa Phat without regard to countervailing 
duties if these preliminary results are unchanged for the final 
results.
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    \16\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1).
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    Commerce intends to issue assessment instructions to CBP no earlier 
than 35 days after the date of publication of the final results of this 
review in the Federal Register. If a timely summons is filed at the 
U.S. Court of International Trade, the assessment instructions will 
direct CBP not to liquidate relevant entries until the time for parties 
to file a request for a statutory injunction has expired (i.e., within 
90 days of publication).

Cash Deposit Requirements

    The following cash deposit requirements will be effective upon 
publication of the final results of this administrative review for all 
shipments of the subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from 
warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date of the 
final results of review, as provided for by section 751(a)(2)(C) of the 
Act: (1) for Hoa Phat, the cash deposit rate will remain unchanged 
(i.e., 255.07 percent),\17\ unless the company satisfies the 
certification requirements in the Final Circumvention Determination; 
and (2) for all companies not subject to this review, CBP will continue 
to collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties at the all-
others rate or the most recent company-specific rate applicable to the 
company, as appropriate. These deposit requirements, when imposed, 
shall remain in effect until further notice.
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    \17\ See Final Circumvention Determination.
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Final Results of Review

    Unless otherwise extended, Commerce intends to issue the final 
results of this administrative review, by adopting the findings in the 
concurrent AD review, within 120 days of publication of these 
preliminary results of review, pursuant to section 751(a)(3)(A) of the 
Act.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is 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: September 6, 2024.
Abdelali Elouaradia,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2024-20773 Filed 9-12-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P