[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 177 (Thursday, September 12, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74204-74206]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-20759]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[C-570-134]


Certain Metal Lockers and Parts Thereof From the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Results and Intent To Rescind, in Part, 
of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review; 2022

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily 
determines that countervailable subsidies were provided to producers 
and exporters of certain metal lockers and parts thereof (metal 
lockers) from the People's Republic of China (China). The period of 
review (POR) is January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022. In 
addition, Commerce, intends to rescind this review with respect to four 
companies. Interested parties are invited to comment on these 
preliminary results.

DATES: Applicable September 12, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laura Delgado, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office III, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1468.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    On October 18, 2023, based on timely requests for review, Commerce 
initiated this administrative review of the countervailing duty order 
on metal lockers from China.\1\ On December 18, 2023, Commerce selected 
Hangzhou Evernew Machinery and Equipment Company Limited (Hangzhou 
Evernew) and Xingyi Metalworking Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. 
(Xingyi Metalworking) as the mandatory respondents in this review.\2\ 
On April 1, 2024, Commerce extended the deadline for the preliminary 
results of this review until August 30, 2024.\3\ On July 22, 2024, 
Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by 
seven days,\4\ and therefore the deadline for these preliminary results 
is September 6, 2024.
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    \1\ See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Administrative Reviews, 88 FR 71829 (October 18, 2023) (Initiation 
Notice); see also See Certain Metal Lockers and Parts Thereof from 
the People's Republic of China: Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Orders, 86 FR 46826 (August 20, 2021) (Order).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Respondent Selection,'' dated December 19, 
2023.
    \3\ See Memorandum, ``Extension of Deadline for Preliminary 
Results of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review,'' dated April 
1, 2024.
    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and 
Countervailing Duty Proceedings,'' dated July 22, 2024.
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    For a complete description of the events that followed the 
initiation of this review, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.\5\ 
A list of topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is 
provided in the appendix to this notice. 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 directly 
at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.
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    \5\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary 
Results of the Administrative Review of the Countervailing Duty 
Order on Certain Metal Lockers and Parts Thereof from the People's 
Republic of China; 2022,'' dated concurrently with, and hereby 
adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum).

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[[Page 74205]]

Scope of the Order

    The product covered by the Order is metal lockers from China. For a 
complete description of the scope of the Order, see the Preliminary 
Decision Memorandum.

Intent To Rescind Administrative Review, in Part

    It is Commerce's practice to rescind an administrative review of a 
countervailing duty order, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), when there 
are no reviewable entries of subject merchandise during the POR for 
which liquidation is suspended.\6\ Normally, upon completion of an 
administrative review, the suspended entries are liquidated at the 
countervailing duty assessment rate calculated for the review 
period.\7\ Therefore, for an administrative review of a company to be 
conducted, there must be a reviewable, suspended entry that Commerce 
can instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to liquidate at 
the calculated countervailing duty assessment rate calculated for the 
review period.\8\
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    \6\ See Preliminary Decision Memorandum at ``Partial Rescission 
of Administrative Review.''
    \7\ See 19 CFR 351.212(b)(2).
    \8\ See 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3).
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    According to the CBP import data on the record, there are four 
companies subject to this review that did not have reviewable entries 
of subject merchandise during the POR for which liquidation is 
suspended: Kunshan Dongchu Precision Machinery Co., Ltd.; Pingchu 
Chenda Storage Office Co., Ltd.; Tianjin Jia Mei Metal Furniture Ltd.; 
and Zhejiang Xingyi Metal Products Co., Ltd. Accordingly, in the 
absence of reviewable, suspended entries of subject merchandise during 
the POR, we intend to rescind this administrative review with respect 
to these four companies, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3).

Methodology

    Commerce is conducting this administrative review in accordance 
with 751(a)(1)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). For 
each of the subsidy programs found countervailable, Commerce 
preliminarily determines that there is a subsidy, i.e., a financial 
contribution by an ``authority'' that gives rise to a benefit to the 
recipient, and that the subsidy is specific.\9\ For a full description 
of the methodology underlying our conclusions, including our reliance, 
in part, on facts otherwise available with adverse inferences pursuant 
to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, see the Preliminary Decision 
Memorandum.
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    \9\ See sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding 
financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding 
benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity.
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Rate for Non-Selected Companies Under Review

    The Act and Commerce's regulations do not address the establishment 
of a rate to apply to companies not selected for individual examination 
when Commerce limits its examination in an administrative review 
pursuant to section 777A(e)(2) of the Act. However, Commerce normally 
determines the rates for non-selected companies in reviews in a manner 
that is consistent with section 705(c)(5) of the Act, which provides 
instructions for calculating the all-others rate in an investigation. 
Section 777A(e)(2) of the Act provides that ``the individual 
countervailable subsidy rates determined under subparagraph (A) shall 
be used to determine the all-others rate under section 705(c)(5) {of 
the Act{time} .'' Section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act states that for 
companies not investigated, in general, we will determine an all-others 
rate by weight averaging the countervailable subsidy rates established 
for each of the companies individually investigated, excluding zero and 
de minimis rates or any rates based entirely on facts available.
    Accordingly, to determine the rate for companies not selected for 
individual examination, Commerce's practice is to weight average the 
net subsidy rates for the selected mandatory respondents, excluding 
rates that are zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts 
available.\10\ In this administrative review, we calculated preliminary 
individual estimated countervailable subsidy rates for Hangzhou Evernew 
and Xingyi Metalworking that are not zero, de minimis, or based 
entirely on facts otherwise available. Commerce calculated the rate 
assigned to the companies under review that were not selected for 
individual examination using a simple average of the individual 
estimated subsidy rates calculated for the examined respondents.\11\
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    \10\ See, e.g., Certain Pasta from Italy: Final Results of the 
13th (2008) Countervailing Duty Administrative Review, 75 FR 37386, 
37387 (June 29, 2010).
    \11\ With two respondents under examination, Commerce normally 
calculates: (A) a weighted-average of the estimated subsidy rates 
calculated for the examined respondents; (B) a simple average of the 
estimated subsidy rates calculated for the examined respondents; and 
(C) a weighted-average of the estimated subsidy rates calculated for 
the examined respondents using each company's publicly-ranged U.S. 
sales values for the merchandise under consideration. Commerce then 
compares (B) and (C) to (A) and selects the rate closest to (A) as 
the most appropriate rate for all other producers and exporters. 
See, e.g., Ball Bearings and Parts Thereof from France, Germany, 
Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom: Final Results of Antidumping 
Duty Administrative Reviews, Final Results of Changed-Circumstances 
Review, and Revocation of an Order in Part, 75 FR 53661, 53662 
(September 1, 2010), and accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum 
at Comment 1. As complete publicly ranged sales data were not 
available, Commerce based the all-others rate on a simple average of 
the mandatory respondents' estimated subsidy rates.
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Preliminary Results of Review

    As a result of this review, we preliminarily determine the 
following net countervailable subsidy rates exist for the POR, January 
1, 2022, through December 31, 2022:
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    \12\ As discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum, 
Commerce has found the following companies to be cross-owned with 
Hangzhou Evernew: Zhejiang Yinghong Metalware Co., Ltd.
    \13\ In the Initiation Notice, we initiated a review of both 
Hangzhou Xline Machinery and Hangzhou Xline Machinery & Equipment 
Co., Ltd. We preliminarily determine that these are two names for 
the same company, and thus, we are assigning the non-selected rate 
to the full name of the company, Hangzhou Xline Machinery & 
Equipment Co., Ltd.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                        Subsidy rate
                      Company                       (percent ad valorem)
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Hangzhou Evernew Machinery & Equipment Company                     15.35
 \12\.............................................
Xingyi Metalworking Technology (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd                 22.82
Hangzhou Xline Machinery & Equipment Co., Ltd \13\                 19.09
Jiangsu Wanlong Special Containers Co., Ltd.......                 19.09
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Disclosure

    Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis 
performed to interested parties for these preliminary results within 
five days of any public announcement or, if there is no public 
announcement, within five days of the date of publication of this 
notice in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).

[[Page 74206]]

Public Comment

    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c), interested parties may submit case 
briefs to Commerce no later than 30 days after the date of publication 
of this notice. 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.\14\ 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.\15\ All briefs must be 
filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically filed document 
must be received successfully in its entirety in ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. 
Eastern Time on the established deadline.
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    \14\ 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 Procedures).
    \15\ 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 briefs 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.\16\ Further, 
we request that interested parties limit their public executive summary 
of each issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. We 
intend to use the public 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 public 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).\17\
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    \16\ We use the term ``issue'' here to describe an argument that 
Commerce would normally address in a comment of the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum.
    \17\ See APO and Service Procedures.
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    Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to 
request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant 
Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, filed electronically via 
ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time within 30 days after the date of 
publication of this notice. Requests should contain: (1) the party's 
name, address, and telephone number; (2) the number of participants; 
and (3) a list of issues to be discussed. Oral presentations at the 
hearing will be limited to issues raised in the briefs. If a request 
for a hearing is made, Commerce will inform parties of the scheduled 
date for the hearing.\18\
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    \18\ See 19 CFR 351.310(d).
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Assessment Rates

    Consistent with section 751(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.212(b)(2), upon issuance of the final results, Commerce shall 
determine, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall assess, 
countervailing duties on all appropriate entries covered by this 
review. For the companies for which we intend to rescind this review, 
upon issuance of the final rescission, Commerce will instruct CBP to 
assess CVDs on all appropriate entries at a rate equal to the cash 
deposit of estimated CVDs required at the time of entry, or withdrawal 
from warehouse, for consumption, during the period January 1, 2022, 
through December 31, 2022. 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

    Pursuant to section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act, Commerce intends to 
instruct CBP to collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing 
duties in the amount indicated above with regard to shipments of 
subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for 
consumption on or after the date of publication of the final results of 
this review. For all non-reviewed firms, we will instruct CBP to 
continue to collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties at 
the most recent company-specific or all-others rate applicable to the 
company, as appropriate. These cash deposit instructions, when imposed, 
shall remain in effect until further notice.

Notification to Interested Parties

    We are issuing and publishing these preliminary results 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.

Appendix

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Scope of the Order
IV. Intent to Rescind Administrative Review, in Part
V. Analysis of China's Financial System
VI. Diversification of China's Economy
VII. Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences
VIII. Subsidies Valuation
IX. Benchmarks and Interest Rates
X. Analysis of Programs
XI. Rates for Non-Selected Companies
XII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2024-20759 Filed 9-11-24; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P