82 FR 3284 - Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products From the People's Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration

Federal Register Volume 82, Issue 7 (January 11, 2017)

The Department of Commerce (Department) determines that certain biaxial integral geogrid products (geogrids) are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV), as provided in section 735 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). The final weighted-average dumping margins for the investigation on geogrids from the PRC are listed in the ``Final Determination Margins'' section of this notice.

[Federal Register Volume 82, Number 7 (Wednesday, January 11, 2017)]
[Notices]
[Pages 3284-3287]
From the Federal Register Online  [www.thefederalregister.org]
[FR Doc No: 2017-00428]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-036]


Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products From the People's 
Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Department) determines that 
certain biaxial integral geogrid products (geogrids) are being, or are 
likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV), 
as provided in section 735 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the 
Act). The final weighted-average dumping margins for the investigation 
on geogrids from the PRC are listed in the ``Final Determination 
Margins'' section of this notice.

DATES: Effective January 11, 2017.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Julia Hancock or Susan Pulongbarit, 
AD/CVD Operations, Office V, Enforcement and Compliance, International 
Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution 
Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1394 or (202) 
482-4031, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On August 22, 2016, the Department published its Preliminary 
Determination.\1\ We invited interested parties to comment on our 
Preliminary Determination of sales at LTFV. For a list of the parties 
that filed case and rebuttal briefs, see the Issues and Decision 
Memorandum.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products from the 
People's Republic of China: Affirmative Preliminary Determination of 
Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Affirmative Determination of Critical 
Circumstances, in Part, and Postponement of Final Determination, 81 
FR 56584 (August 22, 2015) (Preliminary Determination) and 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum.
    \2\ See Memorandum from Gary Taverman, Associate Deputy 
Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Operations, to Paul Piquado, Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and 
Compliance, ``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the Final 
Determination of the Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain 
Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products from the People's Republic of 
China,'' dated concurrently with this notice (Issues and Decision 
Memorandum).
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Period of Investigation

    The period of investigation (POI) is July 1, 2015, through December 
31, 2015. This period corresponds to the two most recent fiscal 
quarters prior to the month of the filing of the petition, which was 
January 2016.\3\
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    \3\ See 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are geogrids from the 
People's Republic of China (PRC). Subject geogrids enter the United 
States through Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) 
statistical subheading 3926.90.9995, but may also enter through HTSUS 
subheadings 3920.20.0050 and 3925.90.0000. While HTSUS subheadings are 
provided for convenience and Customs purposes, the written description 
of the scope of this investigation is dispositive.
    No interested party commented on the scope of this investigation. 
For a complete description of the scope of the investigation, see 
Appendix I to this notice.

Analysis of Comments Received

    We addressed all issues raised by parties in case and rebuttal 
briefs in the Issues and Decision Memorandum.\4\ Appendix II to this 
notice includes a list of the issues which the parties raised and to 
which the Department responded in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. 
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 http://access.trade.gov. The 
Issues and Decision Memorandum is available

[[Page 3285]]

to all parties in the Central Records Unit, room B8024 of the main 
Department of Commerce building. In addition, a complete version of the 
Issues and Decision Memorandum is available at http://enforcement.trade.gov/frn/index.html. The signed and electronic 
versions of the Issues and Decision Memorandum are identical in 
content.
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    \4\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum.
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Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, in September 2016, the 
Department conducted verification of the information submitted by BOSTD 
Geosynthetics Qingdao Ltd. (BOSTD) and Taian Modern Plastic Co., Ltd. 
(Taian Modern) for use in the final determination. We issued our 
verification reports on November 4, 2016, and November 14, 2016.\5\ The 
Department used standard verification procedures, including examination 
of relevant accounting and production records and original source 
documents provided by respondents.\6\
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    \5\ See the Department's two memoranda regarding: ``Verification 
of the Sales and Factors Response of Taian Modern Plastic Co., Ltd. 
(Taian Modern) in the Antidumping Duty Less Than Fair Value 
Investigation of Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products from the 
People's Republic of China,'' dated November 4, 2016 (Taian Modern 
Verification Report); and ``Verification of the Sales and Factors 
Responses of BOSTD Geosynthetics Qingdao Ltd. (BOSTD) in the 
Antidumping Investigation of Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid 
Products from the People's Republic of China,'' dated November 15, 
2016 (BOSTD Verification Report).
    \5\ Id.
    \6\ Id.
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Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on the Department's analysis of the comments received and our 
findings at verification, we find that BOSTD and Taian Modern failed to 
cooperate by not acting to the best of their ability in this proceeding 
and, pursuant to section 776(b) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.308(a), we 
based BOSTD's and Taian Modern's respective dumping margins on total 
adverse facts available (AFA). For further discussion, see the Issues 
and Decision Memorandum.

Combination Rates

    In the Initiation Notice,\7\ the Department stated that it would 
calculate combination rates for the respondents that are eligible for a 
separate rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 05.1 describes 
this practice.\8\ In this case, because neither respondent qualified 
for a separate rate, combination rates were not calculated.
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    \7\ See Certain Biaxial Integral Geogrid Products from the 
People's Republic of China: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigation, 81 FR 7755, 7756 (February 16, 2016) (Initiation 
Notice).
    \8\ 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 
the Department's Web site at http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part

    For the Preliminary Determination, the Department found that 
critical circumstances existed with respect to imports of geogrids from 
the PRC produced or exported by Taian Modern and the PRC-wide entity, 
but not with respect to imports of geogrids from BOSTD.\9\ We are not 
modifying our final critical circumstances finding for the PRC-wide 
entity (which now includes Taian Modern and BOSTD). Thus, pursuant to 
section 735(a)(3) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.206, we find that critical 
circumstances exist with respect to all exports of subject merchandise 
in this investigation. For further discussion, see the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum at Comments 1, 9 and 13.
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    \9\ See Preliminary Determination, and accompanying Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum at 7-10.
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PRC-Wide Entity

    In this final determination, as discussed above, we are applying a 
rate based entirely on adverse facts available to the PRC-wide entity 
(which now includes the two mandatory respondents). Additionally, as 
explained in the Preliminary Determination, the Department did not 
receive timely responses to its Q&V questionnaire or separate rate 
applications from the PRC exporters and/or producers of subject 
merchandise that were named in the petition and to which the Department 
issued Q&V questionnaires.\10\ As these non-responsive PRC companies 
did not demonstrate that they are eligible for separate rate status, 
the Department continues to consider them to be part of the PRC-wide 
entity.
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    \10\ See Preliminary Determination, and accompanying Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum at 16-17 (Separate Rate).
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PRC-Wide Rate

    For the final determination, we assigned as the AFA rate for the 
PRC-wide entity the highest dumping margin from the petition, i.e., 
372.81 percent. In selecting this AFA rate for the PRC-wide entity, the 
Department's practice is to select a rate that is sufficiently adverse 
to ensure that the uncooperative party does not obtain a more favorable 
result by failing to cooperate than if it had fully cooperated.\11\ 
Specifically, it is the Department's practice to select, as an AFA 
rate, the higher of: (a) The highest dumping margin alleged in the 
petition; or, (b) the highest calculated dumping margin of any 
respondent in the investigation.\12\ There are no calculated margins 
for any respondents in this investigation. Therefore, as AFA, the 
Department has assigned to the PRC-wide entity the rate of 372.81 
percent, which is the highest dumping margin alleged in the petition. 
The dumping margin for the PRC-wide entity applies to all entries of 
the merchandise under investigation.\13\
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    \11\ See, e.g., Notice of Preliminary Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value and Postponement of Final Determination: 
Purified Carboxymethylcellulose from Finland, 69 FR 77216 (December 
27, 2004), unchanged in Notice of Final Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value: Purified Carboxymethylcellulose from Finland, 
70 FR 28279 (May 17, 2005).
    \12\ See, e.g., Certain Stilbenic Optical Brightening Agents 
from the People's Republic of China: Final Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value, 77 FR 17436, 17438 (March 26, 2012); Final 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Certain Cold-Rolled 
Flat-Rolled Carbon Quality Steel Products from the People's Republic 
of China, 65 FR 34660 (May 31, 2000), and accompanying Issues and 
Decision Memorandum.
    \13\ For a detailed discussion, see Issues and Decision 
Memorandum.
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Final Determination

    The Department determines that the estimated final weighted-average 
dumping margins are as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                              Weighted-
                                                               average
                    Exporter                      Producer     margin
                                                              (percent)
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PRC-Wide Entity \14\...........................  .........       372.81
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\14\ As discussed above, the PRC-wide entity includes BOSTD and Taian
  Modern.

Disclosure

    Because our final determination is based entirely on AFA, there are 
no calculations to disclose.

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, the Department 
will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to 
suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of geogrids from the PRC 
as described in the ``Scope of the Investigation'' section, which were 
entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after 
August 22, 2016, the date of publication in the Federal Register of the 
Preliminary Determination. For entries made by Taian Modern and the 
PRC-wide entity, in accordance with section 735(c)(4)(A) of the Act, 
because we

[[Page 3286]]

continue to find that critical circumstances exist, we will instruct 
CBP to continue to suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of 
geogrids from the PRC which were entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, 
for consumption on or after May 24, 2016, which is 90 days prior to the 
date of publication in the Federal Register of the Preliminary 
Determination. Provisional measures were not imposed retrospectively 
for BOSTD because of the Department's preliminary negative critical 
circumstances determination with respect to it. However, the final 
affirmative critical circumstances determination now applies to BOSTD 
as it is now being treated as part of the PRC-wide entity. Accordingly, 
pursuant to section 735(c)(4)(C) of the Act, the Department will 
instruct CBP to suspend liquidation of all entries of geogrids from the 
PRC from BOSTD, which were entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after 90-days prior to the date of publication of 
this final determination in the Federal Register.
    Further, pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act, the 
Department will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit \15\ equal to 
the amount by which the normal value exceeds U.S. price, adjusted where 
appropriate for export subsidies and estimated domestic subsidy pass-
through. For all combinations of PRC exporters/producers of merchandise 
under consideration, the cash deposit rate will be equal to the dumping 
margin established for the PRC-wide entity.
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    \15\ See Modification of Regulations Regarding the Practice of 
Accepting Bonds During the Provisional Measures Period in 
Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Investigations, 76 FR 61042 
(October 3, 2011).
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    As we stated in the Preliminary Determination, consistent with our 
practice, where the product under investigation is also subject to a 
concurrent countervailing duty investigation, we instruct CBP to 
require a cash deposit equal to the amount by which the normal value 
exceeds the export price or constructed export price, less the amount 
of the countervailing duty determined to constitute an export 
subsidy.\16\ In this LTFV investigation, for the PRC-wide entity, which 
received an AFA rate, pursuant to section 776(b) of the Act, the 
Department has adjusted the PRC-wide entity's AD cash deposit rate by 
the lowest export subsidy rate determined for any party in the 
companion CVD proceeding.\17\ Here, that rate is zero and, thus, no 
adjustment is necessary for the PRC-wide rate.\18\ Furthermore, the 
Department did not adjust the final determination AD cash deposit rates 
for estimated domestic subsidy pass-through because respondents 
provided no reliable, accurate information to support an adjustment, 
pursuant to section 777A(f) of the Act.\19\
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    \16\ See Preliminary Determination, 81 FR at 56585-6.
    \17\ See, e.g., Certain Passenger Vehicle and Light Truck Tires 
from the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Determination of 
Sales at Less Than Fair Value; Preliminary Affirmative Determination 
of Critical Circumstances; In Part and Postponement of Final 
Determination, 80 FR 4250 (January 27, 2015), and accompanying 
Issues and Decision Memorandum at 35.
    \18\ See Countervailing Duty Investigation of Certain Biaxial 
Integral Geogrid Products from the People's Republic of China: Final 
Affirmative Determination and Final Determination of Critical 
Circumstances, in Part, dated concurrently with this notice.
    \19\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum at Comments 1 and 9 for 
further discussion of our findings to apply total AFA to BOSTD and 
Taian Modern.
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we notified the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of the final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. As the Department's final determination 
is affirmative, in accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the Act, the 
ITC will determine, within 45 days, whether the domestic industry in 
the United States is materially injured, or threatened with material 
injury, by reason of imports of geogrids for sale from the PRC, or 
sales (or the likelihood of sales) for importation, of geogrids from 
the PRC. If the ITC determines that such injury does not exist, this 
proceeding will be terminated and all securities posted will be 
refunded or canceled. If the ITC determines that such injury does 
exist, the Department will issue an antidumping duty order directing 
CBP to assess, upon further instruction by the Department, 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.

Return or Destruction of Proprietary Information

    This notice also serves as a reminder to the parties subject to 
administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility 
concerning the disposition of propriety information disclosed under APO 
in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. 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 sanctionable violation.
    This determination is issued and published in accordance with 
sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.

    Dated: January 4, 2017.
Paul Piquado,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I--Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by the scope are certain biaxial integral 
geogrid products. Biaxial integral geogrid products are a polymer 
grid or mesh material (whether or not finished, slit, cut-to-length, 
attached to woven or non-woven fabric or sheet material, or 
packaged) in which four-sided openings in the form of squares, 
rectangles, rhomboids, diamonds, or other four-sided figures 
predominate. The products covered have integral strands that have 
been stretched to induce molecular orientation into the material (as 
evidenced by the strands being thinner in width toward the middle 
between the junctions than at the junctions themselves) constituting 
the sides of the openings and integral junctions where the strands 
intersect. The scope includes products in which four-sided figures 
predominate whether or not they also contain additional strands 
intersecting the four-sided figures and whether or not the inside 
corners of the four-sided figures are rounded off or not sharp 
angles. As used herein, the term ``integral'' refers to strands and 
junctions that are homogenous with each other. The products covered 
have a tensile strength of greater than 5 kilonewtons per meter 
(``kN/m'') according to American Society for Testing and Materials 
(``ASTM'') Standard Test Method D6637/D6637M in any direction and 
average overall flexural stiffness of more than 100,000 milligram-
centimeter according to the ASTM D7748/D7748M Standard Test Method 
for Flexural Rigidity of Geogrids, Geotextiles and Related Products, 
or other equivalent test method standards.
    Subject merchandise includes material matching the above 
description that has been finished, packaged, or otherwise further 
processed in a third country, including by trimming, slitting, 
coating, cutting, punching holes, stretching, attaching to woven or 
non-woven fabric or sheet material, or any other finishing, 
packaging, or other further processing that would not otherwise 
remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigations if 
performed in the country of manufacture of the biaxial integral 
geogrid.
    The products subject to the scope are currently classified in 
the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (``HTSUS'') 
under the following subheading: 3926.90.9995. Subject merchandise 
may also enter under subheadings 3920.20.0050 and 3925.90.0000. The 
HTSUS subheadings set forth above are provided for convenience and 
U.S. Customs purposes only. The written description of the scope is 
dispositive.

Appendix II--Issues and Decision Memorandum

I. Summary

[[Page 3287]]

II. Background
III. Period of Investigation
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. Changes Since the Preliminary Determination
VI. Application of Adverse Facts Available
VII. Affirmative Finding of Critical Circumstances
VIII. List of Comments
IX. Discussion of the Issues

Company-Specific Issues

BOSTD

Comment 1: Application of Total Adverse Facts Available (AFA) to 
BOSTD
Comment 2: Moot Arguments for BOSTD

Taian Modern

Comment 3: Application of Total AFA to Taian Modern
Comment 4: Moot Arguments for Taian Modern

General Issues

Comment 5: Selection of AFA Rate to PRC-Wide Entity
Comment 6: Critical Circumstances
Comment 7: Moot Arguments for General Issues

[FR Doc. 2017-00428 Filed 1-10-17; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P