2023-03934. Sodium Nitrite From India: Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Orders

AGENCY:

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

SUMMARY:

Based on affirmative final determinations by the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), Commerce is issuing antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) orders on sodium nitrite from India.

DATES:

Applicable February 27, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Thomas Martin or Joy Zhang, AD/CVD Operations, Offices III and IV, Enforcement and Compliance, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: [phone] and [phone], respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

In accordance with sections 705(d) and 735(d) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), on January 6, 2023, Commerce published its affirmative final determination of sales at less than fair value (LTFV) and its affirmative final determination that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of sodium nitrite from India.^[1]

On February 21, 2023, pursuant to sections 705(d) and 735(d) of the Act, the ITC notified Commerce of its final affirmative determinations that an industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of LTFV imports and subsidized imports of sodium nitrite from India, within the meaning of sections 705(b)(1)(A)(i) and 735(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act.^[2]

Scope of the Orders

The products covered by these orders are sodium nitrite from India. For a full description of the scope of the orders, see the appendix to this notice.

AD Order

Based on the above-referenced affirmative final determinations by the ITC that an industry in the United States is materially injured within the meaning of section 735(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act by reason of LTFV imports of sodium nitrite from India ^[3] in accordance with sections 735(c)(2) and 736 of the Act, Commerce is issuing this antidumping duty order. Moreover, because the ITC determined that imports of sodium nitrite from India are materially injuring a U.S. industry, unliquidated entries of such merchandise from India, entered or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, are subject to the assessment of antidumping duties.

Therefore, in accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act, Commerce intends to direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties equal to the amount by which the normal value of the merchandise exceeds the export price (or constructed export price) of the merchandise for all relevant entries of sodium nitrite from India. Antidumping duties will be assessed on unliquidated entries of sodium nitrite from India entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after August 17, 2022, the date of publication of the AD Preliminary Determination,^[4] but will not include entries occurring after the expiration of the provisional measures period and before publication of the ITC's final injury determination, as further described below.

Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation—AD

Except as noted in the “Provisional Measures—AD” section of this notice, in accordance with section 736 of the Act, Commerce intends to instruct CBP to continue to suspend liquidation on all relevant entries of sodium nitrite from India. These instructions suspending liquidation will remain in effect until further notice.

Commerce also intends to instruct CBP to require cash deposits equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margins indicated in the table below, adjusted by the relevant subsidy offsets. Accordingly, effective on the date of publication in the Federal Register of the notice of the ITC's final affirmative injury determination, CBP must require, at the same time as importers would normally deposit estimated customs duties on subject merchandise, a cash deposit equal to the rates listed in the table below.

Estimated Weighted-Average Dumping Margins

The estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as follows:

Exporter/producer	Estimated weighted- average dumping margin (percent)	Cash deposit rate (adjusted for subsidy offset(s)) (percent)
Deepak Nitrite Limited	44.82	42.76
All Others	44.82	42.76

Provisional Measures—AD

Section 733(d) of the Act states that suspension of liquidation pursuant to an affirmative preliminary determination may not remain in effect for more than four months, except where exporters representing a significant proportion of exports of the subject merchandise request that Commerce extend the four-month period to no more than six months. At the request of exporters that account for a significant proportion of sodium nitrite from India, Commerce extended the four-month period to six months in this AD investigation. Commerce published the AD Preliminary Determination on August 17, 2022.^[5] Therefore, the extended provisional measures period, beginning on the date of publication of the AD Preliminary Determination, ended on February 12, 2023. Pursuant to section 737(b) of the Act, the collection of cash deposits at the rates listed above will begin on the date of publication of the ITC's final injury determination. Therefore, in accordance with section 736(a)(1) of the Act and our practice, we will instruct CBP to terminate the suspension of liquidation and to liquidate, without regard to antidumping duties, unliquidated entries of sodium nitrite from India, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after February 13, 2023, the first day provisional measures were no longer in effect, until and through the day preceding the date of publication of the ITC's final injury determination in the Federal Register .

CVD Order

As stated above, based on the above-referenced affirmative final determinations by the ITC that an industry in the United States is materially injured within the meaning of section 705(b)(1)(A)(i) of the Act by reason of subsidized imports of sodium nitrite from India,^[6] in accordance with section 705(c)(2) of the Act, Commerce is issuing this CVD order. Moreover, because the ITC determined that imports of sodium nitrite from India are materially injuring a U.S. industry, unliquidated entries of subject merchandise from India entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, are subject to the assessment of countervailing duties.

Therefore, in accordance with section 706(a) of the Act, Commerce intends to direct CBP to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, countervailing duties for all relevant entries of sodium nitrite from India, which are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after June 21, 2022, the date of publication of the CVD Preliminary Determination, but will not include entries occurring after the expiration of the provisional measures period and before the publication of the ITC's final injury determination under section 705(b) of the Act, as further described in the “Provisional Measures—CVD” section of this notice.^[7]

Suspension of Liquidation and Cash Deposits—CVD

Therefore, in accordance with section 706 of the Act, Commerce intends to instruct CBP to reinstitute the suspension of liquidation of sodium nitrite from India, effective on the date of publication of the ITC's final affirmative injury determination in the Federal Register , and to assess, upon further instruction by Commerce, pursuant to section 706(a)(1) of the Act, countervailing duties for each entry of subject merchandise in an amount based on the net countervailable subsidy rates below. On or after the date of publication of the ITC's final injury determination in the Federal Register , CBP must require, at the same time as importers would normally deposit estimated customs duties on this merchandise, a cash deposit equal to the rates listed in the table below. These instructions suspending liquidation will remain in effect until further notice. The all-others rate applies to all producers or exporters not specifically listed below, as appropriate:

Company	Subsidy rate (percent ad valorem)
Deepak Nitrite Limited	2.40
All Others	2.40

Provisional Measures—CVD

Section 703(d) of the Act states that the suspension of liquidation pursuant to an affirmative preliminary determination may not remain in effect for more than four months. Commerce published the CVD Preliminary Determination on June 21, 2022.^[8] As such, the four-month period beginning on the date of the publication of the CVD Preliminary Determination ended on October 18, 2022.

Therefore, in accordance with section 703(d) of the Act, we instructed CBP to terminate the suspension of liquidation and to liquidate, without regard to countervailing duties, unliquidated entries of sodium nitrite from India entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on or after October 19, 2022, the date on which the provisional measures expired, until and through the day preceding the date of publication of the ITC's final injury determination in the Federal Register . Suspension of liquidation will resume on the date of publication of the ITC's final determination in the Federal Register .

Establishment of the Annual Inquiry Service Lists

On September 20, 2021, Commerce published the final rule titled “ Regulations to Improve Administration and Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws” in the Federal Register .^[9] On September 27, 2021, Commerce also published the notice titled “ Scope Ruling Application; Annual Inquiry Service List; and Informational Sessions ” in the Federal Register .^[10] The Final Rule and Procedural Guidance provide that Commerce will maintain an annual inquiry service list for each order or suspended investigation, and any interested party submitting a scope ruling application or request for circumvention inquiry shall serve a copy of the application or request on the persons on the annual inquiry service list for that order, as well as any companion order covering the same merchandise from the same country of origin.^[11]

In accordance with the Procedural Guidance, for orders published in the Federal Register after November 4, 2021, Commerce will create an annual inquiry service list segment in Commerce's online e-filing and document management system, Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Electronic Service System (ACCESS), available at https://access.trade.gov, within five business days of publication of the notice of the order. Each annual inquiry service list will be saved in ACCESS, under each case number, and under a specific segment type called “AISL-Annual Inquiry Service List.” ^[12]

Interested parties who wish to be added to the annual inquiry service list for an order must submit an entry of appearance to the annual inquiry service list segment for the order in ACCESS within 30 days after the date of publication of the order. For ease of administration, Commerce requests that law firms with more than one attorney representing interested parties in an order designate a lead attorney to be included on the annual inquiry service list. Commerce will finalize the annual inquiry service list within five business days thereafter. As mentioned in the Procedural Guidance,^[13] the new annual inquiry service list will be in place until the following year, when the Opportunity Notice for the anniversary month of the order is published.

Commerce may update an annual inquiry service list at any time as needed based on interested parties' amendments to their entries of appearance to remove or otherwise modify their list of members and representatives, or to update contact information. Any changes or announcements pertaining to these procedures will be posted to the ACCESS website at https://access.trade.gov.

Special Instructions for Petitioners and Foreign Governments

In the Final Rule, Commerce stated that, “after an initial request and placement on the annual inquiry service list, both petitioners and foreign governments will automatically be placed on the annual inquiry service list in the years that follow.” ^[14] Accordingly, as stated above, the petitioner and Government of India should submit their initial entries of appearance after publication of this notice in order to appear in the first annual inquiry service lists for these orders. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.225(n)(3), the petitioner and the Government of India will not need to resubmit their entries of appearance each year to continue to be included on the annual inquiry service list. However, the petitioner and the Government of India are responsible for making amendments to their entries of appearance during the annual update to the annual inquiry service list in accordance with the procedures described above.

Notification to Interested Parties

This notice constitutes the AD and CVD orders with respect to sodium nitrite from India pursuant to sections 706(a) and 736(a) of the Act. Interested parties can find a list of orders currently in effect at https://enforcement.trade.gov/​stats/​iastats1.html.

These orders are published in accordance with sections 706(a) and 736(a) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.211(b).

Dated: February 21, 2023.

Abdelali Elouaradia,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance.

Appendix

Scope of the Orders

The product covered by these orders is sodium nitrite in any form, at any purity level. In addition, the sodium nitrite covered by these orders may or may not contain an anticaking agent. Examples of names commonly used to reference sodium nitrite are nitrous acid, sodium salt, anti-rust, diazotizing salts, erinitrit, and filmerine. Sodium nitrite's chemical composition is NaNO₂, and it is generally classified under subheading 2834.10.1000 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS). The American Chemical Society Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) has assigned the name “sodium nitrite” to sodium nitrite. The CAS registry number is 7632-00-0. For purposes of the scope of these orders, the narrative description is dispositive, not the tariff heading, CAS registry number or CAS name, which are provided for convenience and customs purposes.

Footnotes

1.   See Sodium Nitrite from India: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value,88 FR 1052 (January 6, 2023); see also Sodium Nitrite from India: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination,88 FR 1042 (January 6, 2023).

2.   See ITC's Letter, “Notification of ITC Final Determinations,” dated February 21, 2023 (ITC Notification Letter).

3.   Id.

4.   See Sodium Nitrite from India: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures,87 FR 50604 (August 17, 2022) ( AD Preliminary Determination).

5.   Id.

6.   See ITC Notification Letter.

7.   See Sodium Nitrite from India: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Alignment of Final Determination With the Final Antidumping Duty Determination,87 FR 36824 (June 21, 2022) ( CVD Preliminary Determination).

8.   Id.

9.   See Regulations to Improve Administration and Enforcement of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Laws,86 FR 52300 (September 20, 2021) ( Final Rule).

10.   See Scope Ruling Application; Annual Inquiry Service List; and Informational Sessions,86 FR 53205 (September 27, 2021) ( Procedural Guidance).

11.   Id.

12.  This segment will be combined with the ACCESS Segment Specific Information (SSI) field which will display the month in which the notice of the order or suspended investigation was published in the Federal Register , also known as the anniversary month. For example, for an order under case number A-000-000 that was published in the Federal Register in January, the relevant segment and SSI combination will appear in ACCESS as “AISL-January Anniversary.” Note that there will be only one annual inquiry service list segment per case number, and the anniversary month will be pre-populated in ACCESS.

13.   See Procedural Guidance.

14.   See Final Rule, 86 FR at 52335.