Certain Paper Plates From the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-570-164, A-549-849, A-552-839]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Paper Plates From the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable February 14, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Charles DeFilippo (the People's Republic of China (China)) at (202) 482-3979; Theodore Pearson (Thailand) at (202) 482-2631; and Bryan Hansen (the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam)) at (202) 482-3683, AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petitions</HD> On January 25, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received antidumping duty (AD) petitions concerning imports of certain paper plates (paper plates) from China, Thailand, and Vietnam filed in proper form on behalf of the American Paper Plate Coalition (the petitioner). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> These AD Petitions were accompanied by countervailing duty (CVD) petitions concerning imports of paper plates from China and Vietnam. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Petitions for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties,” dated January 25, 2024 (the Petitions). The members of the American Paper Plate Coalition are AJM Packaging Corporation, Aspen Products, Inc., Dart Container Corporation, Hoffmaster Group, Inc., Huhtamaki Americas, Inc., and Unique Industries, Inc. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Between January 29 and February 6, 2024, Commerce requested supplemental information pertaining to certain aspects of the Petitions in separate supplemental questionnaires. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The petitioner filed responses to the supplemental questionnaires between January 31 and February 8, 2024. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letter, “Petitions for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties on Imports of Certain Paper Plates from the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Supplemental Questions,” dated January 29, 2024 (General Issues Questionnaire); <E T="03">see also</E> Country-Specific Supplemental Questionnaires: China Supplemental, Thailand Supplemental, and Vietnam Supplemental, dated January 29, 2024; and Memorandum, “Phone Call,” dated February 6, 2024 (February 6 Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Petitioner's Responses to Supplemental Questions—General Issues,” dated February 2, 2024 (First General Issues Supplement); Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: First China AD Supplement, First Thailand AD Supplement, and First Vietnam AD Supplement, dated February 2, 2024; Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: Second China AD Supplement, Second Thailand AD Supplement, and Second Vietnam AD Supplement, dated February 8, 2024; and “Petitioner's Responses to Supplemental Questions—General Issues,” dated February 8, 2024 (Second General Issues Supplement). </FTNT> In accordance with section 732(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the petitioner alleges that imports of paper plates from China, Thailand, and Vietnam are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) within the meaning of section 731 of the Act, and that imports of such products are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, the paper plates industry in the United States. Consistent with section 732(b)(1) of the Act, the Petitions were accompanied by information reasonably available to the petitioner supporting its allegations. Commerce finds that the petitioner filed the Petitions on behalf of the domestic industry, because the petitioner is an interested party, as defined in section 771(9)(F) of the Act. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support for the initiation of the requested LTFV investigations. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  The members of the American Paper Plate Coalition are interested parties as defined under section 771(9)(C) of the Act. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> section on “Determination of Industry Support for the Petitions,” <E T="03">infra.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Periods of Investigation</HD> Because the Petitions were filed on January 25, 2024, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the period of investigation (POI) for the Thailand LTFV investigation is January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. Because China and Vietnam are non-market economy (NME) countries, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the POI for the China and Vietnam LTFV investigations is July 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigations</HD> The products covered by these investigations are paper plates from China, Thailand, and Vietnam. For a full description of the scope of these investigations, <E T="03">see</E> the appendix to this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on the Scope of the Investigations</HD> On January 29 and February 6, 2024, Commerce requested information and clarification from the petitioner regarding the proposed scope to ensure that the scope language in the Petitions is an accurate reflection of the products for which the domestic industry is seeking relief. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> On February 2 and 8, 2024, the petitioner provided clarifications and revised the scope. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The description of merchandise covered by these investigations, as described in the appendix to this notice, reflects these clarifications. <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> General Issues Questionnaire; <E T="03">see also</E> February 6 Memorandum. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> First General Issues Supplement at 5-11; <E T="03">see also</E> Second General Issues Supplement at 3-6. </FTNT> As discussed in the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, we are setting aside a period for interested parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce will consider all scope comments received from interested parties and, if necessary, will consult with interested parties prior to the issuance of the preliminary determinations. If scope comments include factual information, <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> all such factual information should be limited to public information. To facilitate preparation of its questionnaires, Commerce requests that scope comments be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on March 5, 2024, which is 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> Any rebuttal comments, which may include factual information, must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on March 15, 2024, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule,</E> 62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997) ( <E T="03">Preamble</E> ); <E T="03">see also</E> 19 CFR 351.312. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.303(b)(1). </FTNT> Commerce requests that any factual information that parties consider relevant to the scope of these investigations be submitted during that period. However, if a party subsequently finds that additional factual information pertaining to the scope of the investigations may be relevant, the party must contact Commerce and request permission to submit the additional information. All scope comments must be filed simultaneously on the records of the concurrent LTFV and CVD investigations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Filing Requirements</HD> All submissions to Commerce must be filed electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping Duty and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS), unless an exception applies. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety by the time and date it is due. <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings: Electronic Filing Procedures; Administrative Protective Order Procedures,</E> 76 FR 39263 (July 6, 2011); <E T="03">see also Enforcement and Compliance: Change of Electronic Filing System Name,</E> 79 FR 69046 (November 20, 2014) for details of Commerce's electronic filing requirements, effective August 5, 2011. Information on using ACCESS can be found at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help.aspx</E> and a handbook can be found at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help/Handbook_on_Electronic_Filing_Procedures.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on Product Characteristics</HD> Commerce is providing interested parties an opportunity to comment on the appropriate physical characteristics of paper plates to be reported in response to Commerce's AD questionnaires. This information will be used to identify the key physical characteristics of the subject merchandise in order to report the relevant factors of production (FOP) or cost of production (COP) accurately, as well as to develop appropriate product comparison criteria. Interested parties may provide any information or comments that they feel are relevant to the devel ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 53k characters. 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