[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 69 (Friday, April 11, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15434-15436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-06232]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-201-845]
Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation on Sugar
From Mexico: Preliminary Results of the 2022-2023 Administrative Review
AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) selected two
respondents for individual examination, Azucarera San Jose De Abajo
S.A. (San Jose) and Santa Rosalia de la Chontalpa, SA de CV, and its
affiliates (Santa Rosalia; collectively, Grupo BSM). Commerce
preliminarily determines there are no attributable sales to serve as a
basis for review of whether San Jose complied with the certain terms of
the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty Investigation on Sugar
from Mexico, as amended (AD Agreement) during the period of review
(POR) from December 1, 2022, through November 30, 2023. We
preliminarily determine that Grupo BSM, did not comply with the
requirement to eliminate at least 85 percent of the dumping found in
the investigation during the POR. Furthermore, we
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consider Grupo BSM's noncompliant behavior to be serious and in need of
remediation, and we will implement certain steps to address its
noncompliance. Finally, Commerce preliminarily determines that the AD
Agreement met the applicable statutory requirements during the POR.
DATES: Applicable April 11, 2025.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jill Buckles or Samantha Fino,
Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S.
Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20230; telephone: (202) 482-6230 or (202) 482-2861, respectively.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
Commerce and Mexican producers/exporters accounting for
substantially all imports of sugar from Mexico signed the AD Agreement
under section 734(c) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act),
which suspended the underlying antidumping duty investigation, on
December 19, 2014, and which was subsequently amended on January 15,
2020.\1\
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\1\ See Sugar from Mexico: Suspension of Antidumping
Investigation, 79 FR 78039 (December 29, 2014); see also Sugar from
Mexico: Amendment to the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Duty
Investigation, 85 FR 3620 (January 22, 2020) (collectively, AD
Agreement).
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On December 26, 2023, the American Sugar Coalition and its members
(petitioners) \2\ filed a timely request for an administrative review
of the AD Agreement.\3\ On February 9, 2024, Commerce initiated an
administrative review for the period December 1, 2022, through November
30, 2023.\4\ On April 4, 2024, Commerce selected San Jose and Santa
Rosalia as mandatory respondents.
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\2\ The members of the American Sugar Coalition are as follows:
American Sugar Cane League, American Sugarbeet Growers Association,
American Sugar Refining, Inc., Florida Sugar Cane League, Rio Grande
Valley Sugar Growers, Inc., Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of
Florida, and the United States Beet Sugar Association.
\3\ See Petitioners' Letter, ``Request for Administrative
Review,'' dated December 26, 2023.
\4\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty
Administrative Reviews, 89 FR 8641 (February 8, 2024).
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Scope of the AD Agreement
The product covered by this AD Agreement is raw and refined sugar
of all polarimeter readings derived from sugar cane or sugar beets.
Merchandise covered by this AD Agreement is typically imported under
the following headings of the HTSUS: 1701.12.1000, 1701.12.5000,
1701.13.1000, 1701.13.5000, 1701.14.1020, 1701.14.1040, 1701.14.5000,
1701.91.1000, 1701.91.3000, 1701.99.1015, 1701.99.1017, 1701.99.1025,
1701.99.1050, 1701.99.5015, 1701.99.5017, 1701.99.5025, 1701.99.5050,
and 1702.90.4000.\5\ The tariff classification is provided for
convenience and customs purposes; however, the written description of
the scope of this AD Agreement is dispositive.\6\
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\5\ Prior to July 1, 2016, merchandise covered by the AD
Agreement was also classified in the HTSUS under subheading
1701.99.1010. Prior to January 1, 2020, merchandise covered by the
AD Agreement was also classified in the HTSUS under subheadings
1701.14.1000 and 1701.99.5010.
\6\ For a complete description of the Scope of the AD Agreement,
see Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Results of
the 2022-2023 Administrative Review: Sugar from Mexico,'' dated
concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary
Decision Memorandum).
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Methodology and Preliminary Results
Commerce has conducted this review in accordance with section
751(a)(1)(C) of the Act, which specifies that Commerce shall ``review
the current status of, and compliance with, any agreement by reason of
which an investigation was suspended.'' Pursuant to the AD Agreement,
each signatory producer/exporter individually agrees that it will not
sell subject merchandise at prices less than the reference prices
established in Appendix I to the AD Agreement.\7\ Each signatory
producer/exporter also individually agrees that for each entry the
amount by which the estimated normal value exceeds the export price (or
the constructed export price) will not exceed 15 percent of the
weighted average amount by which the estimated normal value exceeded
the export price (or constructed export price) for all less-than-fair-
value entries of the producer/exporter examined during the course of
the investigation.\8\ The signatory producers/exporters also
individually agree to provide documentation upon request from Commerce
\9\ and provide certifications each quarter \10\ to allow Commerce to
monitor the AD Agreement. In addition, the signatory producers/
exporters agree to incorporate into their sales contracts with
Intermediary Customers \11\ the obligation that such customers will
abide by the terms of the AD Agreement.\12\ Lastly, the signatory
producers/exporters agree to ensure that Other Sugar \13\ is tested for
polarity by a laboratory approved by CBP upon entry into the United
States and that the importers of record report the polarity test
results for each entry to Commerce within 30 days of entry.\14\
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\7\ See AD Agreement at Section VI and Appendix I.
\8\ Id. at Section VI.
\9\ Id. at Sections VII.B.1, VII.B.2, and VII.B.4.
\10\ Id. at Section VII.C.4.
\11\ ``Intermediary Customer'' is defined in Section II.N of the
AD Agreement.
\12\ See AD Agreement at Section VII.C.5.
\13\ ``Other Sugar'' is defined Section II.F of the AD
Agreement.
\14\ See AD Agreement at Section VII.C.6.
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After reviewing the information received from the respondent
companies in their questionnaire and supplemental questionnaire
responses, we preliminarily determine that except for as explained
below the respondents were generally in compliance with the AD
Agreement during the POR, that the AD Agreement is functioning as
intended, and that the AD Agreement met the statutory requirements
under sections 734(c) and (d) of the Act during the POR. However, we
preliminarily find that there are no attributable sales to serve as a
basis for review of whether San Jose complied with certain terms of the
AD Agreement, i.e., the Reference Prices \15\ and the requirement to
eliminate at least 85 percent of the dumping, during the POR. In
addition, we preliminarily find that Grupo BSM did not comply with the
requirement to eliminate at least 85 percent of the dumping during the
POR.
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\15\ ``Reference Price'' is defined at Section II.G of the AD
Agreement.
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We intend to address what we have found to be serious noncompliance
by Grupo BSM with an ``action plan'' outlined in the Preliminary
Decision Memorandum. Commerce's next steps will include: verification
of Grupo BSM's questionnaire responses; formal consultations with the
Signatories to the AD Agreement under Section VII.E.2 (Operations
Consultations); additional monitoring of Grupo BSM; and consideration
of the selection of Grupo BSM in a future administrative review. These
measures are necessary to ensure compliance with the AD Agreement and
that any potential administrative challenges to effective monitoring
are diminished.
For a full description of the methodology underlying our
conclusions, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. 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
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directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.
Commerce also addresses certain issues, which require discussion of
business proprietary information, in separate memoranda which we
incorporate into the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\16\
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\16\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum at 6-8 and fn. 47 and
59.
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Verification
As provided in section 782(i)(3) of the Act, Commerce intends to
verify the information from Grupo BSM relied upon in making its final
determination.
Public Comment
Interested parties may submit case briefs not later than seven days
after the date on which the verification report is issued in this
administrative review.\17\ Rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised in
the case briefs, may be filed not later than five days after the date
for filing case briefs.\18\ Interested parties who submit case briefs
or rebuttal briefs in this proceeding must submit: (1) a table of
contents listing each issue; and (2) a table of authorities.\19\
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\17\ See 19 CFR 351.309(c)(1)(ii).
\18\ See 19 CFR 351.309(d); see also Administrative Protective
Order, Service, and Other Procedures in Antidumping and
Countervailing Duty Proceedings, 88 FR 67069, 67077 (September 29,
2023) (APO and Service Final Rule).
\19\ See 19 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2).
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As provided under 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), in prior
proceedings we have encouraged interested parties to provide an
executive summary of their brief that should be limited to five pages
total, including footnotes. In this review, we instead request that
interested parties provide at the beginning of their briefs a public,
executive summary for each issue raised in their briefs.\20\ Further,
we request that interested parties limit their executive summary of
each issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. We
intend to use the executive summaries as the basis of the comment
summaries included in the issues and decision memorandum that will
accompany the final results in this administrative review. We request
that interested parties include footnotes for relevant citations in the
executive summary of each issue. Note that Commerce has amended certain
of its requirements pertaining to the service of documents in 19 CFR
351.303(f).\21\
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\20\ We use the term ``issue'' here to describe an argument that
Commerce would normally address in a comment of the Issues and
Decision Memorandum.
\21\ See APO and Service Final 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, filed electronically via ACCESS. Requests
should contain: (1) the party's name, address, and telephone number;
(2) the number of participants and whether any participant is a foreign
national; and (3) a list of issues to be discussed. An electronically
filed hearing request must be received successfully in its entirety by
Commerce's electronic records system, ACCESS, by 5 p.m. Eastern Time
within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice.
Commerce intends to issue the final results of this administrative
review, including the results of its analysis of the issues raised in
any written briefs, not later than 120 days after the date of
publication of this notice, pursuant to section 751(a)(3)(A) of the
Act, unless extended.
Notification to Interested Parties
We are issuing and publishing these results in accordance with
sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.
Dated: April 7, 2025.
Christopher Abbott,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, performing the
non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for
Enforcement and Compliance.
Appendix
List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum
I. Summary
II. Background
III. Scope of the Agreement
IV. Preliminary Results of Review
V. Recommendation
[FR Doc. 2025-06232 Filed 4-10-25; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P