Certain Paper Plates From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-570-165]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Paper Plates From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain paper plates (paper plates) from the People's Republic of China (China). The period of investigation (POI) is January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable July 1, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Eliza DeLong or Sun Cho, AD/CVD Operations, Office V, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3878 or (202) 482-6458, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> This preliminary determination is made in accordance with section 703(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce published the notice of initiation of this countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on February 21, 2024. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On March 26, 2024, Commerce postponed the preliminary determination until June 24, 2024. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Paper Plates from the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigations,</E> 89 FR 13043 (February 21, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Paper Plates from the People's Republic of China and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Postponement of Preliminary Determinations in the Countervailing Duty Investigations,</E> 89 FR 20945 (March 26, 2024). </FTNT> For a complete description of events that followed the initiation of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> A list of topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is included as Appendix II to this notice. The Preliminary 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 <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov.</E> In addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.</E> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Affirmative Determination of the Countervailing Duty Investigation of Certain Paper Plates from the People's Republic of China,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The products covered by this investigation are paper plates from China. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> Appendix I. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope Comments</HD> In accordance with the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> the <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> set aside a period of time for parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> No interested party commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice.</E> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule,</E> 62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997) ( <E T="03">Preamble</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation Notice,</E> 89 FR at 13044. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with section 701 of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce preliminarily determines that there is a subsidy, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> a financial contribution by an “authority” that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> For a full description of the methodology underlying our preliminary determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity. </FTNT> Commerce notes that, in making these findings, it relied, in part, on facts available, and, because it finds that certain respondents and the Government of China did not act to the best of their ability to respond to Commerce's requests for information, it drew an adverse inference where appropriate in selecting from among the facts otherwise available. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> For further information, <E T="03">see</E> the “Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences” section in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Affirmative Determination Critical Circumstances</HD> In accordance with section 703(e)(1) of the Act, we preliminarily find that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise from Fuzhou Hengli Paper Co., Ltd. (Fuzhou Hengli), the companies who did not respond to our quantity and value (Q&V) questionnaire ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the non-responsive companies), <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> and all other producers and/or exporters. We also preliminarily find that critical circumstances do not exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise from Jinhua P&P Product Co., Ltd (Jinhua P&P). For a full discussion of our preliminary critical circumstances determination, <E T="03">see</E> the “Preliminary Critical Circumstances” section of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>  The companies that failed to respond to Commerce's Q&V questionnaire are: (1) Ningbo Artcool Co., Ltd.; (2) Ningbo Fenghua Yongfa Printing Stationery Co., Ltd.; (3) Zhejiang Kingsun Eco-Pack Co., Ltd.; and (4) Zhejiang Lingrong Crafts Co., Ltd. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Alignment</HD> In accordance with section 705(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(b)(4), Commerce is aligning the final CVD determination in this investigation with the final determination in the concurrent antidumping duty (AD) investigation of paper plates from China, based on a request made by the petitioner. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Consequently, the final CVD determination will be issued on the same date as the final AD determination, which is currently scheduled to be issued no later than November 5, 2024, unless postponed. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Petitioner's Request for Alignment of Final Determinations with Deadline in Concurrent AD Investigations,” dated June 5, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Paper Plates from the People's Republic of China, Thailand, and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Postponement of Preliminary Determinations in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations,</E> 89 FR 49833 (June 12, 2024). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Sections 703(d) and 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act provide that, in the preliminary determination, Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for companies not individually examined. This rate shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated subsidy rates established for those companies individually examined, excluding any rates that are zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely under section 776 of the Act. In this investigation, Commerce preliminarily calculated total net subsidy rates for Fuzhou Hengli and Jinhua P&P that are not zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely on the facts otherwise available. Because Commerce calculated individual estimated countervailable subsidy rates for Fuzhou Hengli and Jinhua P&P that are not zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely on the facts otherwise available, we have preliminarily calculated the all-others rate using a weighted-average of the individual estimated subsidy rates calculated for the examined respondents using each company's publicly-ranged sales values. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Calculation of Subsidy Rate for All Others,” dated concurrently with this notice. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Rate for Non-Responsive Companies</HD> Four potential exporters and/or producers of paper plates from China did not respond to Commerce's Q&V questionnaire. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> We find that, by not responding to the Q&V questionnaire, these companies withheld requested information and significantly impeded this proceeding. Thus, in reaching our preliminary determination, pursuant to sections 776(a)(2)(A) and (C) of the Act, we are basing the CVD subsidy rate for the non-responsive companies on facts otherwise available. <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>  As noted above, these companies are: (1) Ningbo Artcool Co., Ltd.; (2) Ningbo Fenghua Yongfa Printi ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 24k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━