Notice2024-11485
Certain Paper Shopping Bags From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances
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Published
May 24, 2024
Issuing agencies
Commerce DepartmentInternational Trade Administration
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that certain paper shopping bags (paper bags) from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) are being, or likely to be, sold in the United States at less-than-fair value (LTFV) for the period investigation October 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 89 Issue 102 (Friday, May 24, 2024)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 102 (Friday, May 24, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 45839-45841]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2024-11485]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
[A-552-836]
Certain Paper Shopping Bags From the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair
Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances
AGENCY: Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) determines that
certain paper shopping bags (paper bags) from the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam (Vietnam) are being, or likely to be, sold in the United States
at less-than-fair value (LTFV) for the period investigation October 1,
2022, through March 31, 2023.
DATES: Applicable May 24, 2024.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Myrna Lobo, AD/CVD Operations, Office
VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration,
U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington,
DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2371.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
On January 3, 2024, Commerce published in the Federal Register its
preliminary determination in the LTFV investigation of paper bags from
Vietnam, in which we also postponed the final determination until May
17, 2024.\1\ We invited interested parties to comment on the
Preliminary Determination.\2\
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\1\ See Certain Paper Shopping Bags from the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less
Than Fair Value, Preliminary Affirmative Critical Circumstances
Determination, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of
Provisional Measures, 89 FR 321 (January 3, 2024) (Preliminary
Determination), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum
(PDM).
\2\ See Preliminary Determination, 89 FR at 321.
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A summary of the events that occurred since Commerce published the
Preliminary Determination, as well as a full discussion of the issues
raised by parties for this final determination, may be found in the
Issues and Decision Memorandum.\3\ The Issues and Decision Memorandum
is a public document and is on file electronically via Enforcement and
Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic
Service System (ACCESS). ACCESS is available to registered users at
<a href="https://access.trade.gov">https://access.trade.gov</a>. In addition, a complete version of the Issues
and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <a href="https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx</a>.
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\3\ See Memorandum, ``Decision Memorandum for the Final
Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation
of Certain Paper Shopping Bags from the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam,'' dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this
notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum).
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Scope of the Investigation
The products covered by this investigation are paper bags from
Vietnam. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation,
see Appendix I.
Scope Comments
During the course of this investigation, Commerce received scope
comments from parties. Commerce issued a Preliminary Scope Decision
Memorandum to address these comments and set aside a period of time for
parties to address scope issues in scope-specific case and rebuttal
briefs.\4\ We received comments from parties on the Preliminary Scope
Decision Memorandum, which we addressed in the Final Scope Decision
Memorandum.\5\ We made no changes to the scope of the investigation
from the scope published in the Preliminary Determination, as noted in
Appendix I to this notice.
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\4\ See Memorandum, ``Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,''
dated December 27, 2023 (Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum).
\5\ See Memorandum, ``Less-Than-Fair-Value and Countervailing
Duty Investigations of Certain Paper Shopping Bags from Cambodia,
the People's Republic of China, Colombia, India, Malaysia, Portugal,
Taiwan, the Republic of Turkey, and the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam: Final Scope Decision Memorandum,'' dated March 11, 2024
(Final Scope Decision Memorandum).
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Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances
In accordance with section 733(e) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as
amended (the Act) and 19 CFR 351.206, Commerce continues to find that
critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of paper bags from
Vietnam for Goldsun Packaging and Printing Joint Stock Company
(Goldsun), the non-selected respondents eligible for a separate rate,
and the Vietnam-wide entity. For a discussion and analysis of comments
regarding Commerce's critical circumstances analysis, see the Issues
and Decision Memorandum.
Verification
As provided in section 782(i) of the Act, we conducted
verifications of the sales and factors of production information
submitted by Goldsun for use in our final determination. We used
standard verification procedures, including an examination of relevant
sales and accounting records, and original source documents provided by
Goldsun.\6\
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\6\ See Memorandum, ``Verification of the Questionnaire
Responses of Goldsun Packaging and Printing Joint Stock Company in
the Antidumping Investigation of Certain Paper Shopping Bags from
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,'' dated March 27, 2024.
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Analysis of Comments Received
All issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs submitted by
interested parties in this investigation are addressed in the Issues
and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues raised is attached as
Appendix II to this notice.
Changes Since the Preliminary Determination
We have made certain changes to the margin calculation for
Goldsun.\7\ For a discussion of these changes, see the Issues and
Decision Memorandum.
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\7\ See Issues and Decision Memorandum.
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Vietnam-Wide Entity and Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)
Consistent with the Preliminary Determination,\8\ Commerce
continues to find, pursuant to sections 776(a)(1) and (a)(2)(A)-(C) of
the Act, that the use of facts available is warranted in determining
the rate of the Vietnam-wide entity, which includes mandatory
respondent Hi-Level Enterprise Co., Ltd. (Hi-Level), who did not fully
respond to Commerce's questionnaire, and for the following five non-
responsive companies \9\ that did not respond to our requests for
information: NamCuong Packaging, Pan Pacific Vietnam, SIC Paper Bag,
Kien Nang, Co., Ltd. and TLC Packaging. Furthermore, we continue to
find that an adverse inference is warranted in selecting from among the
facts otherwise available, pursuant to section 776(b) of the Act,
because the Vietnam-wide entity, including the above-referenced
companies, failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of their
ability to comply with Commerce's requests for information. For the
final determination, consistent with the
[[Page 45840]]
Preliminary Determination,\10\ as AFA, we are continuing to assign to
the Vietnam-wide entity, including the above-referenced companies, the
rate of 92.34 percent, which is the highest margin alleged in the
petition.\11\
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\8\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 6-8.
\9\ Id.
\10\ Id.
\11\ See Initiation Checklist, ``Antidumping Duty Investigation
Initiation Checklist: Certain Paper Shopping Bags from the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam,'' dated June 20, 2023.
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Separate Rates
We preliminarily found the mandatory respondent Goldsun and certain
non-selected separate rate applicants \12\ to be eligible for a
separate rate in the Preliminary Determination.\13\ No party commented
on our preliminary separate rate determination and we have no basis to
otherwise reconsider this determination. Accordingly, we continue to
find that Goldsun and the non-selected companies are eligible for a
separate rate in the final determination.
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\12\ The non-selected companies eligible for a separate rate
are: (1) Khang Thanh Manufacturing Company Limited, (2) Vietnam Red
Star Industry Company Limited, and 3) Dong Sung Printing Co., Ltd.
\13\ See Preliminary Determination PDM at 13-14.
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Generally, Commerce looks to section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act, which
provides instructions for calculating the all-others rate in an
investigation, for guidance when calculating the rate for separate rate
respondents which we did not individually examine. The statute further
provides that, where all margins are zero, de minimis, or based
entirely on facts available under section 776 of the Act, Commerce may
use ``any reasonable method'' for assigning the rate to non-selected
respondents.\14\ In this final determination, the only participating
mandatory respondent (i.e., Goldsun) has received a weighted-average
dumping margin which is not zero, de minimis, or based entirely on
facts available. Therefore, in accordance with section 735(c)(5)(A) of
the Act, we have assigned Goldsun's calculated weighted-average dumping
margin (i.e., 36.51 percent) to the non-examined separate rate
respondents.
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\14\ See section 735(c)(5)(B) of the Act.
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Combination Rates
Consistent with the Preliminary Determination and Policy Bulletin
05.1,\15\ Commerce calculated combination rates for Goldsun and three
other companies eligible for a separate rate.
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\15\ See Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1,
regarding, ``Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination
Rates in Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy
Countries,'' dated April 5, 2005 (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available
on Commerce's website at <a href="http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf">http://enforcement.trade.gov/policy/bull05-1.pdf</a>.
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Final Determination
The final estimated weighted-average dumping margins are as
follows:
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\16\ Dong Sung is sometimes translated as one word ``Dongsung.''
\17\ Id.
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Weighted-average
Exporter Producer dumping margin
(percent)
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Goldsun Packaging and Printing Goldsun Packaging and 36.51
Joint Stock Company. Printing Joint Stock
Company.
Dong Sung Printing Co., Ltd Dong Sung Vina 36.51
\16\. Printing Co., Ltd
\17\.
Khang Thanh Manufacturing Khang Thanh 36.51
Company Limited. Manufacturing
Company Limited.
Vietnam Red Star Industry Vietnam Red Star 36.51
Company Limited. Industry Company
Limited.
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Vietnam-Wide Entity * 92.34
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* Based on AFA.
Disclosure
We intend to disclose the calculations performed in this final
determination within five days of the date of publication of this
notice in the Federal Register in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b).
Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation
In accordance with section 735(c)(4) of the Act, because Commerce
continues to find that critical circumstances exist, we will instruct
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to continue to suspend
liquidation of subject merchandise, as described in Appendix I of this
notice, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption, on or
after October 5, 2023, which is 90 days prior to the date of the date
of publication of the affirmative Preliminary Determination in the
Federal Register.
Pursuant to section 735(c)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act and 19 CFR
351.210(d), we will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal to the
amount by which the normal value exceeds the U.S. price as follows: (1)
the cash deposit rate for the exporter/producer combination listed in
the table above will be the rate identified in the table; (2) for all
combinations of Vietnamese exporters/producers of subject merchandise
that have not received their own separate rate above, the cash deposit
rate will be the cash deposit rate established for the Vietnam-wide
entity; and (3) for all non-Vietnamese exporters of subject merchandise
which have not received their own separate rate above, the cash deposit
rate will be the cash deposit rate applicable to the Vietnamese
exporter/producer combination that supplied that non-Vietnamese
exporter. These suspension of liquidation instructions will remain in
effect until further notice.
U.S. International Trade Commission Notification
In accordance with section 735(d) of the Act, Commerce will notify
the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) of its final affirmative
determination of sales at LTFV. Because the final determination in this
proceeding is affirmative, in accordance with section 735(b)(2) of the
Act, the ITC will make its final determination as to whether the
domestic industry in the United States is materially injured, or
threatened with material injury, by reason of imports of paper bags
from Vietnam no later than 45 days after this final determination. If
the ITC determines that material injury or threat of material injury
does not exist, the proceeding will be terminated and all cash deposits
will be refunded or canceled, and suspension of liquidation will be
lifted. If the ITC determines that such injury does exist, Commerce
will issue an antidumping duty order directing CBP to assess, upon
further instruction by Commerce, antidumping duties on all imports of
the subject merchandise that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse,
for consumption on or after the effective date of the suspension of
liquidation, as discussed in the ``Continuation of Suspension of
Liquidation'' section.
Administrative Protective Order
This notice serves as the final reminder to parties subject to an
[[Page 45841]]
administrative protective order (APO) of their responsibility
concerning the disposition of proprietary information disclosed under
APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305(a)(3). Timely written
notification of return or 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.
Notification to Interested Parties
This determination and this notice are issued and published in
accordance with sections 735(d) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR
351.210(c).
Dated: May 17, 2024.
Ryan Majerus,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Negotiations, performing the
non-exclusive functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for
Enforcement and Compliance.
Appendix I
Scope of the Investigation
The products within the scope of this investigation are paper
shopping bags with handles of any type, regardless of whether there
is any printing, regardless of how the top edges are finished (e.g.,
folded, serrated, or otherwise finished), regardless of color, and
regardless of whether the top edges contain adhesive or other
material for sealing closed. Subject paper shopping bags have a
width of at least 4.5 inches and depth of at least 2.5 inches.
Paper shopping bags typically are made of kraft paper but can be
made from any type of cellulose fiber, paperboard, or pressboard
with a basis weight less than 300 grams per square meter (GSM).
A non-exhaustive illustrative list of the types of handles on
shopping bags covered by the scope include handles made from any
materials such as twisted paper, flat paper, yarn, ribbon, rope,
string, or plastic, as well as die-cut handles (whether the punchout
is fully removed or partially attached as a flap).
Excluded from the scope are:
<bullet> Paper sacks or bags that are of a \1/6\ or \1/7\ barrel
size (i.e., 11.5-12.5 inches in width, 6.5-7.5 inches in depth, and
13.5-17.5 inches in height) with flat paper handles or die-cut
handles;
<bullet> Paper sacks or bags with die-cut handles, a grams per
square meter paper weight of less than 86 GSM, and a height of less
than 11.5 inches; and
<bullet> Paper sacks or bags (i) with non-paper handles made
wholly of woven ribbon or other similar woven fabric \18\ and (ii)
that are finished with folded tops or for which tied knots or t-bar
aglets (made of wood, metal, or plastic) are used to secure the
handles to the bags.
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\18\ Paper sacks or bags with handles made of braided or twisted
materials, such as rope or cord, do not qualify for this exclusion.
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The above-referenced dimensions are provided for paper bags in
the opened position. The height of the bag is the distance from the
bottom fold edge to the top edge (i.e., excluding the height of
handles that extend above the top edge). The depth of the bag is the
distance from the front of the bag edge to the back of the bag edge
(typically measured at the bottom of the bag). The width of the bag
is measured from the left to the right edges of the front and back
panels (upon which the handles typically are located).
This merchandise is currently classifiable under Harmonized
Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings
4819.30.0040 and 4819.40.0040. The HTSUS subheadings are provided
for convenience and customs purposes only; the written description
of the scope is dispositive.
Appendix II
List of Topics Discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum
I. Summary
II. Background
III. Changes From the Preliminary Determination
IV. Discussion of the Issues
Comment 1: Whether To Use the Philippines as the Surrogate
Country
Comment 2: Whether To Recalculate the Financial Ratios
Comment 3: Whether To Adjust the Ocean Freight Surrogate Value
Comment 4: Whether To Use Brokerage and Handling for Export
Comment 5: Whether To Use Harmonized System Subheading 3919.20
for the Label Input
Comment 6: Whether To Correct Programming Errors Related to
Units of Measure and Certain Expenses
Comment 7: Whether To Make a Negative Critical Circumstances
Determination
Comment 8: Whether To Use Post-Verification Sales and Factors of
Production (FOP) Databases
V. Recommendation
[FR Doc. 2024-11485 Filed 5-23-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 24, 2024.
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