SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On January 3, 2018, Commerce published the CVD Order on softwood lumber from Canada.^[1] On July 5, 2019, ( printed page 50794) Commerce published its Expedited Review Final for the Order covering the period January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2015.^[2] In the Expedited Review Final, Commerce calculated a de minimis subsidy rate of 0.21 percent ad valorem for D&G/Portbec.^[3]

The Committee Overseeing Action for Lumber International Trade Investigations or Negotiations (the COALITION) appealed Commerce's Expedited Review Final, challenging Commerce's statutory authority to promulgate its expedited review regulations at 19 CFR 351.214(k) to determine individual subsidy rates for companies not individually examined in an investigation. On November 19, 2020, the CIT remanded Commerce's Expedited Review Final for reconsideration of the statutory basis upon which Commerce conducted the expedited review.^[4] On February 22, 2021, Commerce issued its First Remand Redetermination,^[5] in which Commerce found that it did not have the statutory authority to promulgate the CVD expedited review regulations at 19 CFR 351.214(k), and to conduct CVD expedited reviews. On August 18, 2021, the CIT affirmed Commerce's remand and vacated the expedited review regulation at 19 CFR 351.214(k), as well as the Expedited Review Final.^[6] Accordingly, the CIT declined to consider the remaining challenges to the Expedited Review Final raised by several of the expedited review companies and the COALITION.

On April 25, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the CIT's decision and held that Commerce has the statutory authority to adopt the CVD expedited review process, and remanded for further proceedings necessitated by its holding that such statutory authority exists.^[7]

On April 24, 2024, the CIT sustained several of Commerce's determinations in the Expedited Review Final, but remanded certain issues to Commerce including its decision not to attribute subsidies to D&G/Portbec received by their unaffiliated lumber suppliers.^[8] Accordingly, on September 10, 2024, Commerce issued its Second Remand Redetermination in which the subsidy rate for D&G/Portbec was recalculated by treating them as trading companies, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.525(c), with respect to their purchases of lumber from unaffiliated Canadian suppliers that was either further processed (or remanufactured) and sold to the United States, or resold without further processing to the United States.^[9]

On January 21, 2025, the CIT sustained Commerce's determination to treat D&G/Portbec as trading companies, but remanded the revised subsidy rate calculation for D&G/Portbec.^[10] Additionally, at this time, D&G/Portbec argued that Commerce should seek additional information from Portbec concerning its purchases of lumber from unaffiliated Canadian suppliers delivered in the United States.^[11] On April 21, 2025, Commerce issued its Third Remand Redetermination disagreeing with D&G/Portbec that the subsidy calculation should not include lumber purchases Portbec made in the United States and that the record should be reopened to solicit the value of these purchases. With respect to the subsidy rate calculation for D&G/Portbec, Commerce reconsidered the calculation from the Second Remand Redetermination and found that the original calculation inappropriately weighted D&G/Portbec's purchases and sales. Therefore, Commerce applied an approach that considered each company's relative share of purchases of lumber from unaffiliated Canadian suppliers and each company's relative share of total sales to calculate the subsidy rate attributable to D&G and Portbec, under the trading company regulation, 19 CFR 351.525(c). Commerce, thus, calculated an overall subsidy rate of 1.75 percent ad valorem, which is above de minimis, for D&G/Portbec.^[12]

In its December 18, 2025, order and opinion, the CIT remanded Commerce Third Remand Redetermination for it to reconsider the documentation that D&G/Portbec proffered with regard to the lumber which the companies claimed was purchased from importers after importation into the United States during 2015.^[13]

On April 17, 2026, Commerce issued its Fourth Remand Redetermination in which it considered documentation provided by D&G/Portbec regarding lumber that was purchased from unaffiliated lumber suppliers in the United States after it was imported ( i.e., resales).^[14] As a result, Commerce calculated a revised subsidy rate of 1.05 percent ad valorem, which is above de minimis. On July 21, 2026, the CIT issued its final judgment sustaining Commerce's Expedited Review Final, as amended by the second, third and fourth redeterminations on remand.^[15]

Amended Final Results and Reinstatement to the Order

Because the court has issued a final judgment, Commerce is amending its Expedited Review Final with respect to the countervailable subsidy rate assigned to D&G/Portbec. As a result of the CIT's final judgment issued on July 21, 2026, D&G/Portbec's rate of 1.05 percent ad valorem is now above de minimis, and subject merchandise produced and exported by D&G/Portbec is included in the Order, effective on the date of publication of this notice.

Cash Deposit Requirements

Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash ( printed page 50795) deposits of estimated countervailing duties for D&G/Portbec, at the rate shown above, on shipments of subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of the amended final results of this expedited review. These cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall remain in effect until further notice.

Notification to Interested Parties

This notice is issued and published in accordance with section 777(i)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended.

91 FR 50793