2010-22083. Certain Cased Pencils From the People's Republic of China: Extension of Time Limit for Preliminary Results of the Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY:

Import Administration, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Patricia Tran at [phone] or Mahnaz Khan at [phone]; AD/CVD Operations, Office 1, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On January 29, 2010, the Department of Commerce (“Department”) published a notice of initiation of administrative review of the antidumping duty order on certain cased pencils from the People's Republic of China, covering the period December 1, 2008 through November 30, 2009. See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews, Requests for Revocation in Part, and Deferral of Initiation of Administrative Review, 75 FR 4770 (January 29, 2010). The current deadline for the preliminary results of this administrative review is September 9, 2010.^[1]

Statutory Time Limits

Section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (“the Act”), requires the Department to issue the preliminary results of an administrative review within 245 days after the last day of the anniversary month of an order for which a review is requested and the final results of review within 120 days after the date on which the preliminary results are published. If it is not practicable to complete the review within the time period, section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act allows the Department to extend these deadlines to a maximum of 365 days and 180 days, respectively.

Extension of Time Limit for Preliminary Results

The Department requires additional time to review and analyze the sales and factors of production responses in this administrative review. The Department has also found the need to issue additional supplemental questionnaires to respondents in this review. Moreover, the Department requires additional time to analyze complex issues related to surrogate value selections. Thus, it is not practicable to complete this review within the originally anticipated time limit (i.e., by September 9, 2010). Therefore, the Department is extending the time limit for completion of the preliminary results by 120 days to not later than January 7, 2011, in accordance with section 751(a)(3)(A) of the Act.

We are issuing and publishing this notice in accordance with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act.

Dated: August 30, 2010.

Edward C. Yang,

Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Operations.

Footnotes

1.  As explained in the memorandum from the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, the Department has exercised its discretion to toll deadlines for the duration of the closure of the Federal Government from February 5, through February 12, 2010. See Memorandum to the Record from Ronald Lorentzen, DAS for Import Administration, regarding “Tolling of Administrative Deadlines As a Result of the Government Closure During the Recent Snowstorm,” dated February 12, 2010. Thus, all deadlines in this segment of the proceeding were extended by seven days. The revised deadline for the preliminary results of the 2008-2009 antidumping duty administrative review is therefore September 9, 2010. The final results of this review continue to be due 120 days after the publication of the preliminary results.