§ 165.4 Release of information provided by interested parties. ( a ) *Claim for business confidential treatment.* Any interested party that makes a submission to CBP in connection with an investigation under this part, including for its initiation and administrative review, may request that CBP treat any part of the submission as business confidential information except for the information specified in paragraph (c) of this section. If the requirements of this section are satisfied and the information for which protection is sought consists of trade secrets and/or commercial or financial information obtained from any person, which is privileged or confidential in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), CBP will grant business confidential treatment and issue an administrative protective order pursuant to paragraph (f) of this section. All documents and communications that are submitted to CBP after notice of initiation of an investigation must be served on all parties to the investigation by the submitting entity (for business confidential documents, a public version must be served as well, in accordance with paragraph (a)(2) of this section). ( 1 ) *Identification of business confidential information.* An interested party submitting information must identify the information for which business confidential treatment is claimed by enclosing the claimed confidential information within single brackets. The first page of any submission containing business confidential information must clearly state that the submission contains business confidential information. The submitting interested party must also provide with the claimed business confidential information an explanation of why each item of bracketed information is entitled to business confidential treatment.
( 2 ) *Public version.* An interested party filing a submission containing claimed business confidential information must also file a public version of the submission. The public version must be filed on the same date as the business confidential version and contain a summary of the bracketed information in sufficient detail to permit a reasonable understanding of the substance of the information. If the submitting interested party claims that summarization is not possible, the claim must be accompanied by a full explanation of the reasons supporting that claim. The public version must be clearly marked as a public version on the first page.
( b ) *Nonconforming submissions.* CBP will reject a submission that includes a request for business confidential treatment but does not meet the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section and will not consider or place such submission on the administrative record unless the submitting interested party takes any of the actions in paragraph (b)(2) of this section within the timeframe specified in paragraph (b)(2) of this section. ( 1 ) *Notice of rejection.* If CBP determines that the claim of confidentiality is nonconforming, it will treat the relevant portion of the submission as business confidential information until the appropriate corrective action is taken or the submission is rejected.
( 2 ) *Corrective action.* The submitting interested party may take any of the following actions within two business days after receiving CBP's notice of rejection: ( i ) Correct the problems and resubmit the information by an email message or through any other method approved or designated by CBP;
( ii ) If CBP denies a request for business confidential treatment, agree to have the information in question treated as public information;
( iii ) Submit other material concerning the subject matter in lieu of the rejected information.
( 3 ) *Effects of rejection.* If the submitting interested party does not take any of the actions in accordance with paragraph (b)(2) of this section, CBP will not consider the rejected submission, not place such submission on the administrative record, and, if applicable, adverse inferences may be drawn pursuant to § 165.6.
( c ) *Information that will not be protected as confidential.* The following information provided by a party to the investigation in an allegation of evasion will not be protected as business confidential information and will be treated as public pursuant to the certification of informed consent referenced in § 165.11(c): ( 1 ) Name of the party to the investigation providing the information and identification of the agent filing on its behalf, if any, and email address for communication and service purposes;
( 2 ) Specification as to the basis upon which the party making the allegation qualifies as an interested party as defined in § 165.1;
( 3 ) Name and address of importer against whom the allegation is brought;
( 4 ) Description of covered merchandise; and
( 5 ) Applicable AD/CVD orders.
( d ) *Certification.* In accordance with paragraph (a)(2) of this section, when providing a public version of their submissions, interested parties must certify that the information they are providing is either their own information (*i.e.*, information from their own business records and not business confidential information of another entity) or information that was publicly obtained or in the public domain.
( e ) *Information placed on the record by CBP.* Any information that CBP places on the administrative record, when obtained other than from an interested party subject to the requirements of this section, will include a public summary of the business confidential information as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, when applicable. If CBP places information on the record from parties who are not already subject to the requirements of this section, CBP will require these parties to conform to the requirements of this section and § 165.5 when filing submissions. Otherwise, such submissions may be treated as nonconforming submissions pursuant to paragraph (b) of this section and/or § 165.5(b)(4).
( f ) *Administrative protective order.* In each investigation where CBP has granted a request by an interested party to treat any part of its submission as business confidential information, CBP will issue an administrative protective order which will contain terms to allow the representatives of parties to the investigation to access the business confidential information.
[81 FR 56482, Aug. 22, 2016, as amended at 89 FR 19258, March 18, 2024]