1318 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 6 / Thursday, January 9, 1997 / Notices

assessment of double antidumping

duties.

This notice also serves as a reminder

to parties subject to administrative

protective order (APOs) of their

responsibility concerning the

disposition of proprietary information

disclosed under APO in accordance

with 19 CFR § 353.34(d). Timely written

notification of the return/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. This

administrative review and this notice

are in accordance with section

751(a)(2)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR

§ 353.22.

Dated: December 30, 1996.

Robert S. LaRussa,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Import

Administration.

[FR Doc. 97–507 Filed 1–8–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P

[A–201–601]

Fresh Cut Flowers From Mexico;

Preliminary Results and Partial

Termination of Antidumping Duty

Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration,

International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of preliminary results

and partial termination of Antidumping

Duty Administrative Review.

SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce

(the Department) is conducting an

administrative review of the

antidumping duty order on certain fresh

cut flowers from Mexico. This review

was initiated in response to requests by

respondents, Rancho del Pacifico

(Pacifico) and Rancho Guacatay

(Guacatay). Although we initiated a

review of both producers, we are

terminating the review with respect to

Guacatay because the respondent timely

withdrew its request for review. This

review covers one producer/exporter

and entries of the subject merchandise

into the United States during the period

April 1, 1995 through March 31, 1996.

We have preliminarily determined

that sales have not been made below

normal value (NV). Interested parties are

invited to comment on these

preliminary results. Parties who submit

comments are requested to submit with

each comment (1) a statement of the

issue and (2) a brief summary of the

comment.

EFFECTIVE DATE: January 9, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Daniel Singer or Leon McNeill, AD/CVD

Enforcement, Import Administration,

International Trade Administration,

U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th

Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.,

Washington, D.C. 20230; telephone:

(202) 482–4733.

Applicable Statutes and Regulations

Unless otherwise stated, all citations

to the statute are references to the

provisions effective January 1, 1995, the

effective date of the amendments made

to the Tariff Act of 1930 (the Act) by the

Uruguay Round Agreements Act

(URAA). In addition, unless otherwise

indicated, all citations to the

Department’s regulations are to the

current regulations, as amended by the

interim regulations published in the

Federal Register on May 11, 1995 (60

FR 25130).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On April 23, 1987, the Department

published in the Federal Register an

antidumping duty order on certain fresh

cut flowers from Mexico (52 FR 13491).

On April 30, 1996, Pacifico and

Guacatay requested that the Department

conduct an administrative review in

accordance with § 353.22 (a)(1) of the

Department’s regulations. Pacifico and

Guacatay also requested that the

Department revoke the antidumping

duty order as it pertains to them upon

completion of the review. We published

a notice of initiation on May 24, 1996

(61 FR 26518), covering Pacifico and

Guacatay, and the period April 1, 1995

through March 31, 1996. On July 2,

1996, Guacatay timely withdrew its

request for review. Because there were

no other requests for review for

Guacatay from any other interested

party, the Department is now

terminating this review in part in

accordance with § 353.22(a)(5). We shall

instruct the U.S. Customs Service to

liquidate Guacatay’s entries for this

period at the rates in effect at the time

of entry. Because Guacatay is a

previously reviewed company, the cash

deposit rate will continue to be the

company-specific rate currently in

effect.

The Department is conducting this

review in accordance with section 751

of the Act.

Scope of the Review

The products covered by this review

are certain fresh cut flowers, defined as

standard carnations, standard

chrysanthemums, and pompon

chrysanthemums. During the period of

review, such merchandise was

classifiable under Harmonized Tariff

Schedule of the United States (HTSUS)

items 0603.10.7010 (pompon

chrysanthemums), 0603.10.7020

(standard chrysanthemums), and

0603.10.7030 (standard carnations). The

HTSUS item numbers are provided for

convenience and Customs purposes

only. The written description remains

dispositive.

This review covers sales of the subject

merchandise entered into the United

States during the period April 1, 1995

through March 31, 1996.

Determination Not To Revoke

On April 30, 1996, Pacifico requested

revocation of the antidumping order,

pursuant to § 353.222(d) of the

Department’s proposed regulations.

According to § 351.222(d) of the

proposed regulations, the Department

need not conduct a review of the second

year of the three-year period of sales at

not less than fair value (LTFV) required

for revocation. Because the proposed

regulations have not been issued as final

regulations, the current regulations

remain in effect.

Under § 353.25(a)(2)(i) of the

Department’s current regulations, the

Department may revoke an order if one

or more producers or resellers covered

by the order have sold subject

merchandise at not less than NV for a

period of at least three consecutive

years. Although Pacifico was a

respondent in the administrative

reviews of the 1992/1993 POR and

1993/1994 POR, earning zero margins in

both reviews, Pacifico did not

participate in the administrative review

of the 1994/1995 POR. See 61 FR 28166

(June 4, 1996). Therefore, the

Department finds Pacifico ineligible for

revocation at this time.

Duty Absorption

On June 21, 1996, the petitioner

requested that the Department

determine whether antidumping duties

had been absorbed by Pacifico during

the period of review (POR) pursuant to

section 751(a)(4) of the Act. Section 751

(a)(4) provides for the Department, if

requested, to determine, during an

administrative review initiated two

years or four years after publication of

the order, whether antidumping duties

have been absorbed by a foreign

producer or exporter subject to the

order, if the subject merchandise is sold

in the United States through an importer

who is affiliated with such foreign

producer or exporter. Section 751(a)(4)

was added to the Act by the URAA. The

Department’s interim regulations do not

address this provision of the Act.

For transition orders as defined in

section 751(c)(6)(C) of the Act, i.e.,

orders in effect as of January 1, 1995,
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 6 / Thursday, January 9, 1997 / Notices 1319

section 351.213(j)(2) of the Department’s

proposed antidumping regulations

provides that the Department will make

a duty absorption determination, if

requested, for any administrative review

initiated in 1996 or 1998. See 61 FR

7308, 7366 (February 27, 1996). The

preamble to the proposed antidumping

regulations explains that reviews

initiated in 1996 will be considered

initiated in the second year and reviews

in 1998 will be considered initiated in

the fourth year. Id. at 7317. Although

these proposed antidumping regulations

are not yet binding upon the

Department, they do constitute a public

statement of how the Department

expects to proceed in construing section

751(a)(4) of the Act. This approach

assures that interested parties will have

the opportunity to request a duty

absorption determination prior to the

time for sunset review of the order

under section 751(c). Because the order

on certain fresh cut flowers from Mexico

has been in effect since 1987, this is a

transition order. Therefore, based on the

policy stated above, the Department will

first consider a request for an absorption

determination during a review initiated

in 1996. This being a review initiated in

1996, we are making a duty-absorption

determination as part of this segment of

the proceeding.

The statute provides for a

determination on duty absorption if the

subject merchandise is sold in the

United States through an affiliated

importer. In this case, Pacifico is itself

the importer, i.e., the exporter and the

importer are the same entity; therefore,

751(a)(4) is applicable. We have

preliminarily determined that there is

no dumping margin on any of Pacifico’s

U.S. sales during the POR. We,

therefore, preliminarily find that

antidumping duties have not been

absorbed by Pacifico on its U.S. sales.

United States Price

In calculating United States Price

(USP), we used constructed export price

(CEP), in accordance with subsections

772(b), (c), and (d) of the Act, because

Pacifico’s sales to the first unaffiliated

purchaser occurred after importation

into the United States. As in the original

LTFV investigation and in all prior

administrative reviews, all United States

prices were weight-averaged on a

monthly basis to account for

perishability of the product. CEP was

based on the packed F.O.B. prices to the

first unaffiliated purchaser after

importation into the United States.

Where appropriate, we made

deductions from CEP for U.S. inland

freight, U.S. and Mexican brokerage and

handling charges, and for credit

expenses incurred on sales in the

United States. Finally, we made an

adjustment for an amount of profit

allocated to these expenses in

accordance with section 772(d)(3) of the

Act. No other adjustments were claimed

or allowed.

Normal Value

In calculating NV, we used home

market prices to unaffiliated purchasers,

as defined in section 773 of the Act. In

order to determine whether there was a

sufficient volume of sales in the home

market to serve as a viable basis for

calculating NV, we compared Pacifico’s

volume of home market sales of the

subject merchandise to the volume of

U.S. sales of the subject merchandise, in

accordance with section 773(a)(1)(B) of

the Act. Because Pacifico’s aggregate

volume of home market sales of the

foreign like product was greater than

five percent of its aggregate volume of

U.S. sales of the subject merchandise,

we determined that the home market

provides a viable basis for calculating

NV for Pacifico.

Home market price was based on the

F.O.B. farm gate unit price of subject

merchandise sold to unaffiliated

purchasers in the home market. No

adjustments were claimed or allowed.

Preliminary Results of Review

We preliminarily determine that the

following weighted-average dumping

margin exists for the period April 1,

1995 through March 31, 1996:

Manufacturer/exporter

Margin

(percent)

Rancho del Pacifico ........................ 0.00

Parties to the proceeding may request

disclosure within 5 days of the date of

publication of this notice. Any

interested party may request a hearing

within 10 days of publication. Any

hearing, if requested, will be held 44

days after the publication of this notice,

or the first workday thereafter.

Interested parties may submit case briefs

within 30 days of the date of publication

of this notice. Rebuttal briefs, which

must be limited to issues raised in the

case briefs, may be filed no later than 37

days after the date of publication.

Parties who submit comments are

requested to submit with their

comments (1) a statement of the issue

and (2) a brief summary of the comment.

The Department will publish a notice of

final results of this administrative

review, which will include the results of

its analysis of issues raised in any such

comments.

The Department shall determine, and

the Customs Service shall assess,

antidumping duties on all appropriate

entries. Upon completion of this review,

the Department will issue appraisement

instructions directly to the Customs

Service.

Furthermore, the following deposit

rates will be effective upon publication

of the final results of this administrative

review for all shipments of certain fresh

cut flowers from Mexico entered, or

withdrawn from warehouse, for

consumption on or after the publication

date, as provided for by section 751

(a)(2)(c) of the Act: (1) the cash deposit

rate for the reviewed company will be

the rate established in the final results

of this review;

(2) for merchandise exported by

manufacturers or exporters not covered

in these reviews but covered in the

original LTFV investigation or a

previous review, the cash deposit will

continue to be the company-specific rate

published for the most recent period; (3)

if the exporter is not a firm covered in

this or a previous review, or the original

LTFV investigation, but the

manufacturer is, the cash deposit rate

will be the rate established for the most

recent period for the manufacturer of

the merchandise; and (4) for all other

producers and/or exporters of the

merchandise, the cash deposit rate shall

be 18.20 percent, the rate established in

the LTFV investigation. See 52 FR 6361

(March 3, 1987).

These deposit rates, when imposed,

shall remain in effect until publication

of the final results of the next

administrative review.

This notice also serves as a

preliminary reminder to importers of

their responsibility under § 353.26 to

file a certificate regarding the

reimbursement of antidumping duties

prior to liquidation of the relevant

entries during this review period.

Failure to comply with this requirement

could result in the Secretary’s

presumption that reimbursement of

antidumping duties occurred and the

subsequent assessment of double

antidumping duties.

This administrative review and notice

are in accordance with sections

751(a)(1) and 751(d)(1) of the Act (19

U.S.C. 1675(a)) and § 353.22 and

§ 353.25.

Dated: December 31, 1996.

Robert S. LaRussa,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Import

Administration.

[FR Doc. 97–506 Filed 1–8–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510–DS–P