[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 60 (Tuesday, March 29, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 17984-17987]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-06557]


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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-141]


Certain Walk-Behind Snow Throwers and Parts Thereof From the 
People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at 
Less Than Fair Value

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

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that imports 
of certain walk-behind snow throwers and parts thereof (snow throwers) 
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 is July 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020.

DATES: Applicable March 29, 2022.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brendan Quinn or Laurel LaCivita, 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) 482-5848 or (202) 
482-4243, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    On October 26, 2021, Commerce published its Preliminary 
Determination of sales at LTFV of snow throwers from China, in which we 
also postponed this final determination until 135 days after the date 
of publication of the preliminary determination, pursuant to section 
735(a)(2) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act).\1\ A summary 
of the events that occurred since Commerce published the Preliminary 
Determination, as well as a full discussion of the issues raised by 
parties for this final determination, may be found in the Issues and 
Decision Memorandum.\2\
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    \1\ See Certain Walk-Behind Snow Throwers and Parts Thereof from 
the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative 
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of 
Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures, 86 FR 
61135 (November 5, 2021) (Preliminary Determination), and 
accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM).
    \2\ See Memorandum, ``Issues and Decision Memorandum for the 
Final Affirmative Antidumping Duty Determination in the Less-Than-
Fair-Value Investigation of Certain Walk-Behind Snow Throwers and 
Parts Thereof from the People's Republic of China,'' dated 
concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues and 
Decision Memorandum).
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    The Issues and Decision Memorandum is a public document and is 
available 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.

Scope of the Investigation

    The products covered by this investigation are snow throwers from 
China. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, 
see Appendix I.

Scope Comments

    There have been no scope comments since the Preliminary 
Determination. As a result, Commerce has made no changes to the scope 
of this investigation since the Preliminary Determination.

[[Page 17985]]

Analysis of Comments Received

    All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by 
interested parties in this investigation are discussed in the Issues 
and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues raised by parties and 
responded to by Commerce in the Issues and Decision Memorandum is 
attached to this notice as Appendix II.

Verification

    Commerce was unable to conduct on-site verification of the 
information relied upon in making its final determination in this 
investigation. However, we took additional steps in lieu of an on-site 
verification to verify the information relied upon in making this final 
determination, in accordance with section 782(i) of the Act.\3\
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    \3\ See Commerce's Letter, ``Certain Walk-Behind Snow Throwers 
and Parts Thereof from the People's Republic of China: Questionnaire 
in Lieu of Verification,'' dated November 23, 2021; see also 
Zhejiang Zhouli's Letters, ``Certain Walk-Behind Snow Throwers from 
the People's Republic China: Submission of Minor Corrections Before 
Verification,'' dated November 30, 2021; and ``Certain Walk-Behind 
Snow Throwers and Parts Thereof from the People's Republic China: 
Submission of Zhejiang Zhouli's Response in Lieu of Verification,'' 
dated November 30, 2021.
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Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

    Based on our analysis of the comments received and additional 
information obtained since our Preliminary Determination, we made 
certain changes to the margin calculations for Zhejiang Zhouli 
Industrial Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang Zhouli). For a discussion of these 
changes, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

Separate Rate Companies

    No party commented on our preliminary separate rate determinations 
with respect to the mandatory respondents and the non-individually 
examined companies; thus, we find no basis to reconsider our 
preliminary determinations with respect to separate rate status, and we 
have continued to grant these companies separate rates in this final 
determination.

China-Wide Entity Rate and the Use of Adverse Facts Available

    Commerce continues to find that the use of facts available is 
warranted in determining the rate for the China-wide entity, pursuant 
to sections 776(a)(1) and (a)(2)(A)-(C) of the Act. As discussed in the 
Issues and Decision Memorandum, Commerce finds that the use of adverse 
facts available (AFA) is warranted with respect to the China-wide 
entity because the China-wide entity failed to cooperate by not acting 
to the best of its ability to comply with our requests for information 
and, accordingly, we applied adverse inferences in selecting from the 
facts available, pursuant to section 776(b) of the Act and 19 CFR 
351.308(a).
    For the final determination, as AFA, we are assigning the China-
wide entity a dumping margin of 223.07 percent, which represents 
highest individual dumping margin calculated for Zhejiang Zhouli.\4\ 
Because this rate is not secondary information, but rather is based on 
information obtained in the course of the investigation, Commerce need 
not corroborate this rate pursuant to section 776(c) of the Act.\5\
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    \4\ See Memorandum, ``Antidumping Duty Investigation of Certain 
Walk-Behind Snow Throwers and Parts Thereof from the People's 
Republic of China: Analysis Memorandum for the Final Determination: 
Zhejiang Zhouli Industrial Co., Ltd.,'' dated concurrently with this 
notice, at Attachment 3, page 243.
    \5\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 18 (explaining that 
because Commerce is applying a calculated margin to the China-wide 
entity, it is not using secondary information as the basis of any 
margins. As a consequence, it is not necessary to conduct a 
corroboration analysis for this determination).
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Combination Rates

    Consistent with the Preliminary Determination, Commerce calculated 
exporter/producer combination rates for the respondents that are 
eligible for a separate rate in this investigation. Policy Bulletin 
05.1 describes this practice.\6\
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    \6\ 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 
Commerce's website at http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf.
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Final Determination

    The estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as follows:

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                                                                                     Estimated     Cash deposit
                                                                                     weighted-    rate (adjusted
                   Exporter                                 Producer                  average       for subsidy
                                                                                  dumping margin     offsets)
                                                                                     (percent)       (percent)
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Zhejiang Zhouli Industrial Co., Ltd...........  Zhejiang Zhouli Industrial Co.,           163.27          142.19
                                                 Ltd.
Ningbo Scojet Import & Export Trade Co., Ltd..  Ninghai Yiyi Garden Tools Co.,            163.27          142.19
                                                 Ltd.
Sumec Hardware and Tools Co., Ltd.............  Zhejiang KC Mechanical &                  163.27          142.19
                                                 Electrical Co., Ltd.
Zhejiang Amerisun Technology Co., Ltd.........  Zhejiang Dobest Power Tools Co.,          163.27          142.19
                                                 Ltd.
Zhejiang KC Mechanical & Electrical Co., Ltd..  Zhejiang KC Mechanical &                  163.27          142.19
                                                 Electrical Co., Ltd.
China-Wide Entity.............................  ................................          223.07          201.99
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Disclosure

    We intend to disclose to interested parties the calculations and 
analysis performed in this final determination within five days of any 
public announcement, or, if there is no public announcement in the 
Federal Register, within five days of the date of the publication of 
this notice to parties in this proceeding in accordance with 19 CFR 
351.224(b).

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation

    In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) of the Act, we intend to 
instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to 
suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of snow throwers from 
China, as described in Appendix I to this notice, which were entered, 
or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after November 5, 
2021, the date of publication of the Preliminary Determination of this 
investigation in the Federal Register.
    Furthermore, pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act, upon 
the publication of this notice, Commerce intends to instruct CBP to 
require a cash deposit equal to the weighted-average amount by which 
the normal value exceeds U.S. price as follows: (1) The cash deposit 
rate for the exporter/producer combinations listed in the table above 
will be the rate identified in the table; (2) for all combinations of

[[Page 17986]]

Chinese exporters/producers of subject merchandise that have not 
received their own separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be 
the cash deposit rate established for the China-wide entity; and (3) 
for all non-Chinese exporters of subject merchandise which have not 
received their own separate rate above, the cash deposit rate will be 
the cash deposit rate applicable to the Chinese exporter/producer 
combination that supplied that non-Chinese exporter. These suspension 
of liquidation instructions will remain in effect until further notice.
    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. Commerce continues to find that 
Zhejiang Zhouli, and all non-individually-examined companies found 
eligible for a separate rate qualify for a double-remedy adjustment.\7\ 
Further, we have continued to adjust the cash deposit rates for 
Zhejiang Zhouli, all non-individually-examined separate rate companies, 
and the China-wide entity for export subsidies in the companion CVD 
investigation by the appropriate export subsidy rates as indicated in 
the above chart. However, suspension of liquidation according to 
provisional measures in the companion CVD case has been discontinued 
effective January 8, 2022; therefore, we are not instructing CBP to 
collect cash deposits based upon the adjusted estimated weighted-
average dumping margin for those export subsidies and double remedy 
adjustment at this time.
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    \7\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 26.
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International Trade Commission Notification

    In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, we will notify the 
International Trade Commission (ITC) of the final affirmative 
determination of sales at LTFV. Because the final determination in this 
proceeding 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 snow throwers 
from China no later than 45 days after our final determination. If the 
ITC determines that material injury or threat of material injury does 
not exist, the proceeding will be terminated, and all cash deposits 
will be refunded. If the ITC determines that material injury or threat 
of material 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.

Notification Regarding Administrative Protective Orders

    This notice serves as the only reminder to parties subject to an 
administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility 
concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under 
APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely 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 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: March 21, 2022.
Lisa W. Wang,
Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix I

Scope of the Investigation

    The merchandise covered by this investigation consists of gas-
powered, walk-behind snow throwers (also known as snow blowers), 
which are snow moving machines that are powered by internal 
combustion engines and primarily pedestrian-controlled. The scope of 
the investigation covers certain snow throwers (also known as snow 
blowers), whether self-propelled or non-self-propelled, whether 
finished or unfinished, whether assembled or unassembled, and 
whether containing any additional features that provide for 
functions in addition to snow throwing. Subject merchandise also 
includes finished and unfinished snow throwers that are further 
processed in a third country or in the United States, including, but 
not limited to, assembly or any other processing that would not 
otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of this 
investigation if performed in the country of manufacture of the in-
scope snow throwers.
    Walk-behind snow throwers subject to the scope of this 
investigation are powered by internal combustion engines which are 
typically spark ignition, single or multiple cylinder, and air-
cooled with power take off shafts.
    For the purposes of this investigation, an unfinished and/or 
unassembled snow thrower means at a minimum, a subassembly comprised 
of an engine, auger housing (i.e., intake frame), and an auger (or 
``auger paddle'') packaged or imported together. An intake frame is 
the portion of the snow thrower--typically of aluminum or steel--
that houses and protects an operator from a rotating auger and is 
the intake point for the snow. Importation of the subassembly 
whether or not accompanied by, or attached to, additional components 
including, but not limited to, handle(s), impeller(s), chute(s), 
track tread(s), or wheel(s) constitutes an unfinished snow thrower 
for purposes of this investigation. The inclusion in a third country 
of any components other than the snow thrower sub-assembly does not 
remove the snow thrower from the scope. A snow thrower is within the 
scope of this investigation regardless of the origin of its engine.
    Specifically excluded is merchandise covered by the scope of the 
antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain vertical shaft 
engines between 225cc and 999cc, and parts thereof from the People's 
Republic of China. See Certain Vertical Shaft Engines Between 225cc 
and 999cc, and Parts Thereof, from the People's Republic of China: 
Amended Final Antidumping Duty Determination and Antidumping Duty 
Order, 86 FR 12623 (March 4, 2021) and Certain Vertical Shaft 
Engines Between 225cc and 999cc, and Parts Thereof from the People's 
Republic of China: Countervailing Duty Order and Amended Final 
Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, 86 FR 12619 (March 4, 
2021).
    Also specifically excluded is merchandise covered by the scope 
of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on certain 
vertical shaft engines between 99cc and Up to 225cc, and parts 
thereof from the People's Republic of China. See Certain Vertical 
Shaft Engines Between 99cc and Up to 225cc, and Parts Thereof from 
the People's Republic of China: Antidumping and Countervailing Duty 
Orders, 86 FR 023675 (May 4, 2021).
    The snow throwers subject to this investigation are typically 
entered under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States 
(HTSUS) subheading 8430.20.0060. Certain parts of snow throwers 
subject to this investigation may also enter under HTSUS 
8431.49.9095. The HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and 
customs purposes only, and the written description of the 
merchandise under investigation is dispositive.

Appendix II

List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum

I. Summary
II. Background
III. Period of Investigation
IV. Scope of the Investigation
V. China-Wide Rate
VI. Changes Since the Preliminary Determination
VII. Discussion of the Issues

[[Page 17987]]

    Comment 1: China's Designation as a Non-Market Economy
    Comment 2: Selection of the Primary Surrogate Country
    Comment 3: Selection of Surrogate Financial Statements
    Comment 4: The Calculation of Surrogate Financial Ratios
    Comment 5: Selection of Surrogate Values for Gasoline Engines
    Comment 6: Selection of Surrogate Values for Tires and Wheel 
Hubs
    Comment 7: Zhejiang Zhouli's By-Product Offset
VIII. Recommendation

[FR Doc. 2022-06557 Filed 3-28-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P