§ 351.104 - Record of proceedings.

§ 351.104 Record of proceedings.

Cross Reference

Link to an amendment published at 89 FR 20832, Mar. 25, 2024.

(a) Official record —

(1) In general. The Secretary will maintain an official record of each antidumping and countervailing duty proceeding. The Secretary will include in the official record all factual information, written argument, or other material developed by, presented to, or obtained by the Secretary during the course of a proceeding that pertains to the proceeding. The official record will include government memoranda pertaining to the proceeding, memoranda of ex parte meetings, determinations, notices documents published in the Federal Register, and transcripts of hearings. The official record will contain material that is public, business proprietary, privileged, and classified. For purposes of section 516A(b)(2) of the Act, the record is the official record of each segment of the proceeding. For a scope, circumvention, or covered merchandise inquiry pertaining to companion antidumping and countervailing duty orders conducted on the record of the antidumping duty segment of the proceeding, pursuant to §§ 351.225, 352.226, and 351.227, the record of the antidumping duty segment of the proceeding normally will be the official record.

(2) Material rejected.

(i) The Secretary, in making any determination under this part, will not use factual information, written argument, or other material that the Secretary rejects.

(ii) The official record will include a copy of a rejected document, solely for purposes of establishing and documenting the basis for rejecting the document, if the document was rejected because:

(A) The document, although otherwise timely, contains untimely filed new factual information (see § 351.301(c));

(B) The submitter made a nonconforming request for business proprietary treatment of factual information (see § 351.304);

(C) The Secretary denied a request for business proprietary treatment of factual information (see § 351.304);

(D) The submitter is unwilling to permit the disclosure of business proprietary information under APO (see § 351.304).

(iii) In no case will the official record include any document that the Secretary rejects as untimely filed, or any unsolicited questionnaire response unless the response is a voluntary response accepted under § 351.204(d) (see § 351.302(d)).

(3) Filing requirements for documents not originating with the Department —

(i) In general. Documents not originating with the Department must be placed on the official record for the documents to be considered by the Secretary in the Secretary's analysis and determinations. With the exception of the sources enumerated in paragraph (a)(3)(ii) of this section, mere citations to hyperlinks, website Uniform Resource Locators (URLs), or other sources of information do not constitute placement of the information from those sources on the official record. Unless the exceptions of paragraph (a)(3)(ii) apply, the filing and timing requirements of § 351.301 apply to such information.

(ii) Exceptions for publicly available documents not originating with the Department. The following publicly available sources of information not originating with the Department will be considered by the Secretary in the Secretary's analysis and determinations when fully cited by submitting parties without the requirement that the information sources be placed on the official record: United States statutes and regulations; published United States legislative history; United States court decisions and orders; Federal Register notices and determinations; Commission reports adopted by reference in the Federal Register; dictionary definitions; international agreements identified in § 351.101(a) and dispute settlement determinations arising out of those international agreements. The Secretary may decline to consider sources of information in its analysis or determination that are not cited in full.

(4) Filing requirements for proprietary, privileged, and classified information. When lawfully permitted, all proprietary, privileged, and classified information, including documents originating with the Department containing such information from another segment of the same proceeding, must be placed on the official record in their entirety for the Secretary to consider that information in its analysis and determinations, and the filing and timing restrictions of § 351.301 apply to such information.

(5) Notices and determinations originating with the Department and published in the Federal Register. All notices and determinations originating with the Department and published in the Federal Register may be cited by parties in submissions for consideration by the Secretary without the requirement that the notice or determination be placed on the official record, as long as those notices and determinations are cited in full. The Secretary may decline to consider notices or determinations that are not cited in full. Section 351.301 does not apply to Federal Register notices and determinations.

(6) Public versions of certain unpublished documents originating with the Department which may always be referenced by citation without placing the information on the record. Public versions of the following documents originating with the Department derived from other segments and proceedings may be cited in submissions for consideration by the Secretary without being placed on the record, as long as those documents are cited in full. In providing a citation to a document originating with the Department, the submitter must explain in the text of the submitted document the factual and legal reasons for which the submitter is citing the document and an Enforcement and Compliance Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS) barcode number associated with the document must be included as part of the citation. If an ACCESS barcode number is not included in the citation or is incorrectly transcribed, or the document is not cited in full, the Secretary may decline to consider the cited decision document in its analysis or determination. The timing and filing restrictions of § 351.301 shall not apply to these documents:

(i) Preliminary and final issues and decision memoranda issued in investigations pursuant to §§ 351.205 and 351.210;

(ii) Preliminary and final issues and decision memoranda issued in administrative reviews, pursuant to § 351.213;

(iii) Preliminary and final issues and decision memoranda issued in new shipper reviews, pursuant to § 351.214;

(iv) Preliminary and final issues and decision memoranda in changed circumstances reviews, pursuant to § 351.216;

(v) Preliminary and final issues and decision memoranda in sunset reviews, pursuant to § 351.218;

(vi) Preliminary and final decision memoranda issued in scope inquiries pursuant to § 351.225, circumvention inquiries pursuant to § 351.226, and covered merchandise inquiries pursuant to § 351.227;

(vii) Draft and final redeterminations on remand;

(viii) Draft and final redeterminations issued pursuant to section 129 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act;

(ix) Initiation decision documents, such as initiation checklists;

(x) New subsidy allegation memoranda;

(xi) Scope memoranda issued in an investigation; and

(xii) Post-preliminary determination or results memoranda addressing issues for the first time in the period of time between preliminary and final determinations or results.

(7) Special rules for public versions of documents originating with the Department with no associated ACCESS barcode numbers. Public versions of documents originating with Commerce in other segments or proceedings under paragraph (a)(6) of this section but not associated with an ACCESS barcode number, including documents issued before the implementation of ACCESS, must be submitted on the record in their entirety to be considered by the Secretary in its analysis and determinations and are subject to the timing and filing restrictions of § 351.301.

(b) Public record. The Secretary will maintain a public record of each proceeding. The record will consist of all material contained in the official record (see paragraph (a) of this section) that the Secretary decides is public information under § 351.105(b), government memoranda or portions of memoranda that the Secretary decides may be disclosed to the general public, and public versions of all determinations, notices, and transcripts. The public record will be available to the public for inspection and copying in the Central Records Unit (see § 351.103). The Secretary will charge an appropriate fee for providing copies of documents.

(c) Protection of records. Unless ordered by the Secretary or required by law, no record or portion of a record will be removed from the Department.

[62 FR 27379, May 19, 1997, as amended at 76 FR 39274, July 6, 2011; 88 FR 67077, Sept. 29, 2023; 89 FR 20832, Mar. 25, 2024]