[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 188 (Friday, September 27, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 79256-79259]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-22155]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-156]


Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates From the People's Republic 
of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less-Than-Fair-
Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

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

SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that 
aluminum lithographic printing plates (printing plates) from the 
People's Republic of China (China) are being, or are likely to be, sold 
in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of 
investigation (POI) is January 1, 2023, to June 30, 2023.

DATES: Applicable September 27, 2024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Benito Ballesteros, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade 
Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue 
NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-7425.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On May 1, 2024, Commerce published the Preliminary Determination in 
this investigation and invited interested parties to comment.\1\ On 
June 3, 2024,

[[Page 79257]]

in response to significant ministerial error allegations raised by 
Eastman Kodak Company (the petitioner), Commerce amended the 
Preliminary Determination.\2\ On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain 
deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days.\3\ The 
deadline for the final determination is now September 20, 2024.
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    \1\ See Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of 
Critical Circumstances, and Postponement of Final Determination and 
Extension of Provisional Measure, 89 FR 35062 (May 1, 2024) 
(Preliminary Determination), and accompanying Preliminary 
Determination Memorandum (PDM).
    \2\ See Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates from the People's 
Republic of China: Amended Preliminary Determination of the Less-
Than-Fair-Value Investigation, 89 FR 47516 (June 3, 2024) (Amended 
Preliminary Determination), and accompanying Memorandum, 
``Allegations of Ministerial Errors in the Preliminary 
Determination,'' dated May 28, 2024.
    \3\ 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 occurred since the 
Preliminary Determination, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.\4\ 
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 https://access.trade.gov. In 
addition, a complete version of the Issues and Decision Memorandum can 
be accessed directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Final 
Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation 
of Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates from the People's Republic 
of China,'' dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this 
notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum).
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Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by the scope of this investigation is 
printing plates from China. For a complete description of the scope of 
this investigation, see Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    We received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the 
investigation as it appeared in the Preliminary Determination. 
Therefore, we made no changes to the scope of the investigation.

Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

    Commerce preliminarily determined, in accordance with section 
733(e)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 
351.206(c)(1), that critical circumstances exist with respect to 
imports of printing plates exported by Fujifilm Printing Plate (China) 
Co., Ltd. (Fujifilm) and the China-wide entity.\5\ For the final 
determination, pursuant to section 735(a)(3)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.206, we continue to find that critical circumstances exist for 
Fujifilm and the China-wide entity.\6\
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    \5\ See Preliminary Determination, 89 FR at 35062-63.
    \6\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 26-28.
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Verification

    As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, in May and June 2024, 
respectively, Commerce conducted on-site verifications of the data 
reported by Fujifilm and its U.S. affiliate, Fujifilm North America 
Corporation, using standard verification procedures.\7\
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    \7\ See Memoranda, ``Verification of the Questionnaire Responses 
of Fujifilm Printing Plate (China) Co., Ltd.,'' dated July 9, 2024; 
and ``Verification of the U.S. Sales Response of Fujifilm North 
America Corporation,'' dated July 15, 2024.
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Analysis of Comments Received

    The issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by the parties in 
this investigation are discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. 
For a list of the issues raised by interested parties and addressed in 
the Issues and Decision Memorandum, see Appendix II.

Changes Since the Amended Preliminary Determination

    Based on our review and analysis of the information at verification 
and comments received from interested parties, we made certain changes 
to the margin calculations for Fujifilm. For a discussion of these 
changes, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

Application of Total Adverse Facts Available With Respect to the China-
Wide Entity

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination, Commerce continues 
to find, pursuant to sections 776(a)(1) and (a)(2)(A)-(C) of the Act, 
that the use of facts available is warranted in determining the rate of 
the China-wide entity.\8\ Furthermore, we continue to find that an 
adverse inference is warranted in selecting from the facts otherwise 
available, pursuant to section 776(b) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.308(a), 
because the China-wide entity failed to cooperate by not acting to the 
best of its ability to comply with Commerce's requests for 
information.\9\ As adverse facts available (AFA), we continue to apply 
the highest individual margin calculated for Fujifilm (i.e., 317.44 
percent) because it is a rate derived from information submitted on the 
record and achieves the goal of inducing future cooperation by the 
uncooperative respondent.\10\
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    \8\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 12.
    \9\ Id.
    \10\ See Amended Preliminary Determination, 89 FR at 47516-17.
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Combination Rates

    Consistent with the Initiation Notice,\11\ the Preliminary 
Determination, and Policy Bulletin 05.1,\12\ Commerce calculated a 
combination rate for Fujifilm, which is the sole respondent eligible 
for a separate rate in this investigation.
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    \11\ See Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates from the People's 
Republic of China and Japan: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value 
Investigations, 88 FR 73316, 73320 (October 25, 2023) (Initiation 
Notice).
    \12\ 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,'' dated April 5, 2005 (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available 
on Commerce's website at https://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Determination

    The final estimated weighted-average dumping margins are listed 
below:
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    \13\ This rate is based on AFA.

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                                                                                                   Cash deposit
                                                                                     Weighted-    rate (adjusted
                   Producer                                 Exporter                  average       for subsidy
                                                                                  dumping margin      offset)
                                                                                     (percent)       (percent)
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Fujifilm Printing Plate (China) Co., Ltd......  Fujifilm Printing Plate (China)           115.85          115.84
                                                 Co., Ltd.
China-wide Entity \13\........................  ................................          317.44          317.43
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[[Page 79258]]

Disclosure

    Commerce intends to disclose the calculations and analysis 
performed in this final determination to interested parties 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).

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(4) of the Act, because Commerce 
continues to find that critical circumstances exist for Fujifilm and 
the China-wide entity, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP) to continue to suspend liquidation of subject 
merchandise, as described in Appendix I of this notice, entered, or 
withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on or after February 1, 
2024, which is 90 days prior to the date of publication of the 
Preliminary Determination.
    To determine the cash deposit rate, Commerce normally adjusts the 
estimated weighted-average dumping margin by the amount of domestic 
subsidy pass-through and export subsidies determined in a companion 
countervailing duty (CVD) proceeding when CVD provisional measures are 
in effect. Accordingly, where Commerce makes an affirmative 
determination for domestic subsidy pass-through or export subsidies, 
Commerce offsets the calculated estimated weighted-average dumping 
margin by the appropriate rates. However, suspension of liquidation of 
provisional measures in the companion CVD investigation has been 
discontinued; therefore, we are not instructing CBP to collect cash 
deposits based upon the adjusted estimated weighted-average dumping 
margin for those export subsidies at this time.\14\
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    \14\ See Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates from the People's 
Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty 
Determination, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final 
Antidumping Duty Determination, 89 FR 15134, (March 1, 2024); see 
also section 703(d) of the Act, which states that the provisional 
measures may not be in effect for more than four months, which in 
the companion CVD case is 120 days after the publication of the 
preliminary determination, or June 29, 2024.
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    Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.210(d), we will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit for such 
entries of merchandise equal to the amount by which the normal value 
exceeds the U.S. price as follows: (1) for the producer/exporter 
combination listed in the table above, the cash deposit rate is equal 
to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin listed for that 
combination in the table; (2) for all combinations of Chinese 
producers/exporters of subject merchandise that have not established 
eligibility for their own separate rates, the cash deposit rate will be 
equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin established for 
the China-wide entity; and (3) for all third country exporters of 
subject merchandise not listed in the table above, the cash deposit 
rate is the cash deposit rate applicable to the Chinese producer/
exporter combination (or China-wide entity) that supplied that third-
country exporter. These suspension of liquidation instructions will 
remain in effect until further notice.

U.S. International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) of our final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. Because the final determination in this 
investigation is affirmative, in accordance with section 735(b)(2) of 
the Act, the ITC will make its final determination as to whether the 
domestic industry in the United States is materially injured or 
threatened with material injury by reason of imports of printing plates 
from China no later than 45 days after our final determination. If the 
ITC determines that such material injury or threat of material injury 
does not exist, this proceeding will be terminated, all cash deposits 
posted will be refunded, and suspension of liquidation will be lifted. 
If the ITC determines that such injury does exist, Commerce will issue 
an antidumping duty order directing CBP to assess, upon further 
instruction by Commerce, 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, as 
discussed in the ``Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation'' section.

Administrative Protective Order

    This notice also serves as a final reminder to parties subject to 
an administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility 
concerning the return or destruction of proprietary information 
disclosed under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely 
written notification of the 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 violation which 
is subject to sanction.

Notification to Interested Parties

    This determination is issued and published in accordance with 
sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(c).

    Dated: September 20, 2024.
Ryan Majerus,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, performing the 
non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for 
Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation is aluminum 
lithographic printing plates. Aluminum lithographic printing plates 
consist of a flat substrate containing at least 90 percent Aluminum. 
The aluminum-containing substrate is generally treated using a 
mechanical, electrochemical, or chemical graining process, which is 
followed by one or more anodizing treatments that form a hydrophilic 
layer on the aluminum-containing substrate. An image-recording, 
oleophilic layer that is sensitive to light, including but not 
limited to ultra-violet, visible, or infrared, is dispersed in a 
polymeric binder material that is applied on top of the hydrophilic 
layer, generally on one side of the aluminum lithographic printing 
plate. The oleophilic light-sensitive layer is capable of capturing 
an image that is transferred onto the plate by either light or heat. 
The image applied to an aluminum lithographic printing plate 
facilitates the production of newspapers, magazines, books, 
yearbooks, coupons, packaging, and other printed materials through 
an offset printing process, where an aluminum lithographic printing 
plate facilitates the transfer of an image onto the printed media. 
Aluminum lithographic printing plates within the scope of this 
investigation include all aluminum lithographic printing plates, 
irrespective of the dimensions or thickness of the underlying 
aluminum substrate, whether the plate requires processing after an 
image is applied to the plate, whether the plate is ready to be 
mounted to a press and used in printing operations immediately after 
an image is applied to the plate, or whether the plate has been 
exposed to light or heat to create an image on the plate or remains 
unexposed and is free of any image.
    Subject merchandise also includes aluminum lithographic printing 
plates produced from an aluminum sheet coil that has been coated 
with a light-sensitive image-recording layer in a subject country 
and that is subsequently unwound and cut to the final dimensions to 
produce a finished plate in a third country (including the United 
States), or exposed to light or heat to create an image on the plate 
in a third country (including in a foreign trade zone within the 
United States).
    Excluded from the scope of this investigation are lithographic 
printing plates manufactured using a substrate produced from a 
material other than aluminum, such as rubber or plastic.

[[Page 79259]]

    Aluminum lithographic printing plates are currently classifiable 
under Harmonized Tariff of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings 
3701.30.0000 and 3701.99.6060. Further, merchandise that falls 
within the scope of this investigation may also be entered into the 
United States under HTSUS subheadings 3701.99.3000 and 8442.50.1000. 
Although the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and 
customs purposes, the written description of the scope of this 
investigation is dispositive.

Appendix II

List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Changes Since the Amended Preliminary Determination
IV. Discussion of the Issues
    Comment 1: Whether To Use Fujifilm's Correction to U.S. Inland 
Freight Expenses Submitted at Verification
    Comment 2: Whether To Average Descartes and Maersk Ocean Freight 
Data in Calculating the Surrogate Value for Ocean Freight
    Comment 3: Whether To Revise the U.S. Truck Surrogate Value 
Inflation Factor
    Comment 4: Whether To Continue Using United Parcel Service (UPS) 
and Federal Express (FedEx) Air Freight Data
    Comment 5: Whether To Adjust the Surrogate Financial Ratios
    Comment 6: Whether To Recalculate the Processor-Related Costs 
(i.e., INDIRS2U)
    Comment 7: Whether To Recalculate U.S. Repacking Expenses
    Comment 8: Whether To Recalculate U.S. Adjustments Based on 
Entered Value
    Comment 9: Whether To Use Fujifilm's Reported Aluminum Coil 
Consumption
    Comment 10: Whether To Grant Fujifilm a Double Remedies 
Adjustment
V. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2024-22155 Filed 9-26-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P