[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 232 (Monday, December 2, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 63826-63828]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-30623]
[[Page 63826]]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
[A-485-602]
Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished or
Unfinished, from Romania; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty
Administrative Review
AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of preliminary results of antidumping duty
administrative review.
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SUMMARY: In response to a request by the petitioner, The Timken Company
(Timken), the Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an
administrative review of the antidumping duty order on tapered roller
bearings and parts thereof, finished or unfinished, (TRBs) from
Romania. The review covers shipments of the subject merchandise to the
United States during the period June 1, 1993, through May 31, 1994. The
review indicates the existence of dumping margins during the period of
review.
We have preliminarily determined that sales have been made below
the foreign market value (FMV). If these preliminary results are
adopted in our final results of administrative review, we will instruct
U.S. Customs to assess antidumping duties equal to the difference
between United States price (U.S. price) and the FMV.
Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary
results.
EFFECTIVE DATE: December 2, 1996.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Karin Price or Maureen Flannery,
Office of Antidumping Compliance, 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.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On June 19, 1987, the Department published in the Federal Register
(52 FR 23320) the antidumping duty order on TRBs from Romania. On June
7, 1994, the Department published in the Federal Register (59 FR 29411)
a notice of opportunity to request an administrative review of this
antidumping duty order. On June 30, 1994, in accordance with 19 CFR
353.22(a), the petitioner requested that we conduct an administrative
review of Tehnoimportexport, S.A. (TIE); Tehnoforestexport; S.C.
Rulmenti S.A. Alexandria (Alexandria); S.C. Rulmentul S.A. Brasov
(Brasov); S.C. Rulmenti S.A. Barlad (Barlad); S.C. Rulmenti Grei S.A.
Ploiesti (Ploiesti); S.C. Rulmenti S.A. Slatina (Slatina); and S.C. URB
Rulmenti Suceava S.A. (Suceava). We published the notice of initiation
of this antidumping duty administrative review on July 15, 1994 (59 FR
36160). The Department is conducting this administrative review in
accordance with section 751 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the
Act).
Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the statute and to the
Department's regulations are in reference to the provisions as they
existed on December 31, 1994.
Scope of this Review
Imports covered by this review are shipments of TRBs from Romania.
These products include flange, take-up cartridge, and hanger units
incorporating tapered roller bearings, and tapered roller housings
(except pillow blocks) incorporating tapered rollers, with or without
spindles, whether or not for automotive use. This merchandise is
currently classifiable under Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) item
numbers 8482.20.00, 8482.91.00, 8482.99.30, 8483.20.40, 8483.30.40, and
8483.90.20. Although the HTS item numbers are provided for convenience
and Customs purposes, the written description of the scope of this
order remains dispositive.
This review covers eight companies and the period June 1, 1993
through May 31, 1994. Of the eight companies for which petitioner
requested a review, only TIE made shipments of the subject merchandise
to the United States during the period of review. Alexandria and Brasov
produced the merchandise sold by TIE to the United States, but have
stated that they did not ship TRBs directly to the United States.
Tehnoforestexport, Barlad, Ploiesti, Slatina, and Suceava have
responded that they did not produce or sell TRBs subject to this
review.
Separate Rates
To establish whether a company is sufficiently independent to be
entitled to a separate rate, the Department analyzes each exporting
entity under the test established in the Final Determination of Sales
at Less Than Fair Value: Sparklers from the People's Republic of China
(56 FR 20588, May 6, 1991) (Sparklers), as amplified by the Final
Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Silicon Carbide from
the People's Republic of China (59 FR 22585, May 2, 1994) (Silicon
Carbide). Under this policy, exporters in non-market-economy (NME)
countries are entitled to separate, company-specific margins when they
can demonstrate an absence of government control, both in law and in
fact, with respect to exports. Evidence supporting, though not
requiring, a finding of de jure absence of government control includes:
(1) An absence of restrictive stipulations associated with an
individual exporter's business and export licenses; (2) any legislative
enactments decentralizing control of companies; and (3) any other
formal measures by the government decentralizing control of companies.
De facto absence of government control with respect to exports is based
on four criteria: (1) Whether the export prices are set by or subject
to the approval of a government authority; (2) whether each exporter
retains the proceeds from its sales and makes independent decisions
regarding the disposition of profits or financing of losses; (3)
whether each exporter has autonomy in making decisions regarding the
selection of management; and (4) whether each exporter has the
authority to negotiate and sign contracts.
TIE is the only company covered by this review with shipments of
the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of
review. Therefore, TIE is the only firm for which we have made a
determination of whether it should receive a separate rate. The
evidence on the record demonstrates that TIE does not have autonomy in
making decisions regarding the selection of its management.
Consequently, we have found that there is de facto government control
with respect to TIE's exports according to the criteria identified in
Sparklers and Silicon Carbide. For further discussion of the
Department's preliminary determination that TIE is not entitled to a
separate rate, see Decision Memorandum to the Director, Office of
Antidumping Compliance, dated June 19, 1995; ``Assignment of a separate
rate for Tehnoimportexport, S.A. in the 1993/1994 administrative review
of tapered roller bearings and parts thereof, finished or unfinished,
from Romania,'' which is on file in the Central Records Unit (room B099
of the Main Commerce Building).
Verification
Verification of the questionnaire responses of TIE was conducted
between April 3, 1995, and April 8, 1995, at TIE's facility in
Bucharest, Romania. The majority of TIE's exports were of merchandise
produced by Brasov, and we conducted an additional verification at
Brasov's facility in Brasov, Romania. Verification of Brasov's
questionnaire response, in which it stated that it had no direct
shipments of TRBs to the United States
[[Page 63827]]
during the period of review, was conducted at its facility in Brasov,
Romania.
United States Price
Information on the record indicates that TIE was the only Romanian
exporter of the subject merchandise to the United States during the
period of review. For sales made by TIE, the Department used purchase
price, in accordance with section 772(b) of the Act, in calculating
U.S. price. We calculated purchase price based on the price to
unrelated purchasers. We made deductions, where appropriate, for
foreign inland freight and ocean freight. We used surrogate information
from Turkey to value foreign inland freight for reasons explained in
the ``Foreign Market Value'' section of this notice.
Foreign Market Value
For merchandise exported from an NME country, section 773(c)(1) of
the Act provides that the Department shall determine FMV using a
factors of production methodology if available information does not
permit the calculation of FMV using home market prices, third country
prices, or constructed value (CV) under section 773(a) of the Act.
In every case conducted by the Department involving Romania,
Romania has been treated as an NME country. None of the parties to this
proceeding has contested such treatment in this review. Accordingly, we
calculated FMV in accordance with section 773(c) of the Act and section
353.52 of the Department's regulations based on information submitted
by TIE and verified by the Department. We determined that Poland and
Turkey are each at a level of economic development comparable to
Romania in terms of per capita gross national product (GNP), the growth
rate in per capita GNP, and the national distribution of labor. We have
found that both Poland and Turkey are significant producers of
bearings, but that Poland has a larger bearings industry than Turkey.
Therefore, we have selected Poland as the primary surrogate country.
Where we have been unable to locate publicly available published
information to establish surrogate values from Poland, we have used
Turkey as a secondary surrogate country. For further discussion of the
Department's selection of these surrogate countries, see Memorandum to
the Acting Division Director, dated March 24, 1995; ``Surrogate Country
Selection for Tapered Roller Bearings from Romania,'' and Memorandum to
the File, dated May 4, 1995, ``Selection of the surrogate country in
the 1993/1994 administrative review of tapered roller bearings and
parts thereof, finished or unfinished, from Romania,'' which are on
file in the Central Records Unit (room B099 of the Main Commerce
Building).
For purposes of calculating FMV, we valued the Romanian factors of
production as follows, in accordance with section 773(c)(1) of the Act:
To value all direct materials used in the production of
TRBs, we used the European currency unit (ECU) per metric ton value of
imports into Poland from the countries of the European Community for
the period June 1993 through May 1994, obtained from the EUROSTAT,
Monthly EC External Trade (EUROSTAT). Because these statistics are
exclusive of freight charges incurred by Poland, we have applied to
each surrogate price a CIF/FOB conversion factor, which was obtained
from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, 1995, published
by the International Monetary Fund. Some materials used to produce TRBs
were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, in these
instances, we used the import price to value the relevant portion of
the material input. We made adjustments to include freight costs
incurred between the suppliers and the TRB factories. We also made an
adjustment for scrap steel which was sold.
For direct labor, we used the average monthly wages for
the manufacture of machinery except electrical reported in the
September 1994 issue of the Statistical Bulletin published by the
Central Statistical Office in Warsaw. To determine the number of hours
worked each week, we used information published by the Economic
Intelligence Unit in Investing, Licensing & Trading Conditions Abroad,
Poland, April 1994.
For factory overhead, we used information from a publicly
available summarized version for factory overhead reported for the
1993/1994 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on welded
carbon steel pipe and tube from Turkey (pipe and tube from Turkey),
because we had no useable information from Poland for this expense.
Factory overhead was reported as a percentage of total cost of
manufacture.
For selling, general, and administrative expenses, we used
the statutory minimum percentages found in section 773(e)(1)(B)
pursuant to our authority in section 773(e)(1), because we had no
useable surrogate country information for these expenses.
For profit, we used information from a publicly available
summarized version for profit reported for pipe and tube from Turkey,
because we had no useable information from Poland for this expense.
To value the packing materials, we used the ECU per metric
ton value of imports into Poland from the countries of the European
Community as published in the EUROSTAT. Because these statistics are
exclusive of freight charges incurred by Poland, we have applied to
each surrogate price a CIF/FOB conversion factor, which was obtained
from the International Financial Statistics Yearbook, 1995, published
by the International Monetary Fund. Some materials used to pack TRBs
were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, in these
instances, we used the import price to value the relevant portion of
the packing material. We adjusted these values to include freight costs
incurred between the suppliers and the TRB factories.
To value foreign inland freight, we used information from
a publicly available summarized version for foreign inland freight
reported for pipe and tube from Turkey, because we had no useable
information from Poland for this expense.
Currency Conversion
We made currency conversions in accordance with 19 CFR 353.60(a).
Currency conversions were made at the rates certified by the Federal
Reserve Bank, or, where certified Federal Reserve Bank rates were not
available, average monthly exchange rates published by the
International Monetary Fund in International Financial Statistics.
Preliminary Results of the Review
As a result of our review, we preliminarily determine that the
following margin exists:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Margin
Manufacturer/exporter Time period (percent)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romania Rate.............................. 6/1/93-5/31/94 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 not later than 37 days after the date of
publication. See section 353.38(d) of the Department's
[[Page 63828]]
regulations. 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. Individual
differences between U.S. price and FMV may vary from the percentages
stated above. The Department will issue appraisement instructions
directly to the Customs Service.
Notification of Interested Parties
This notice serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of their
responsibility under section 353.26 of the Department's regulations 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
section 751(a)(1) of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1675(a)(1)) and section 353.22
of the Department's regulations.
Dated: November 20, 1996.
Robert S. LaRussa,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 96-30623 Filed 11-29-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P
