Antidumping Duty Order on Hydrofluorocarbon Blends From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Circumvention With Respect to R-410A From the Republic of Türkiye

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-570-028]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Antidumping Duty Order on Hydrofluorocarbon Blends From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Determination of Circumvention With Respect to R-410A From the Republic of Türkiye</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) determines that imports of R-410A, completed in the Republic of Türkiye (Türkiye) using the People's Republic of China (China)-origin hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) components, and exported from Türkiye, are circumventing the antidumping duty (AD) order on HFC blends from China. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable July 11, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Paul Senoyuit, AD/CVD Operations, Office II, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-6106. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On August 19, 2016, Commerce published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> the AD order on HFC blends from China. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On July 7, 2023, Commerce initiated a country-wide circumvention inquiry pursuant to section 781(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.226(d)(1)(ii) to determine whether imports of R-410A, completed in Türkiye using HFC components R-32 (difluoromethane) and R-125 (pentafluoroethane) (collectively, China-origin components) manufactured in China, are circumventing the <E T="03">Order</E> and, accordingly, should be covered by the scope of the <E T="03">Order</E> . <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On December 11, 2023, Commerce published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> its <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> that imports of R-410A completed in Türkiye using China-origin HFC components and subsequently exported from Türkiye to the United States are circumventing the <E T="03">Order</E> . <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Hydrofluorocarbon Blends from the People's Republic of China: Antidumping Duty Order,</E> 81 FR 55436 (August 19, 2016) ( <E T="03">Order</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Hydrofluorocarbon Blends from the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Circumvention Inquiries on the Antidumping Duty Order,</E> 88 FR 43275 (July 7, 2023) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duty Order on Hydrofluorocarbon Blends from the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Circumvention with Respect to R-410A from the Republic of Turkey,</E> 88 FR 85871 (December 11, 2023) ( <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> ), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM). </FTNT> For a summary of events that occurred since the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> as well as a full discussion of the issues raised by parties for consideration in the final determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> 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 <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov</E> . In addition, a complete version of the Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx</E> . <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Circumvention Inquiry of the Antidumping Duty Order on Hydrofluorocarbon Blends from the People's Republic of China with Respect to Imports of R-410A from the Republic of Türkiye,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Order</HD> The merchandise covered by the <E T="03">Order</E> is certain HFC blends. For a complete description of the scope of the <E T="03">Order, see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Merchandise Subject to the Circumvention Inquiry</HD> This circumvention inquiry covers imports of HFC blend R-410A, completed in Türkiye using China-origin HFC components and subsequently exported from Türkiye to the United States (inquiry merchandise). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this circumvention inquiry in accordance with section 781(b) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.226. <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination</E> PDM for a full description of the methodology. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> We have continued to apply this methodology, without exception, and incorporate by reference this description of the methodology, for our final determination. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination</E> PDM at 3-13. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Analysis of Comments Received</HD> All issues raised in this inquiry are addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues raised is attached to this notice in Appendix I. Based on our analysis of the comments received from the petitioners, <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> we made the following change to the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination:</E> We determine to apply retroactive suspension of liquidation to respondent Cantas Ic Ve Dis Ticaret Sogutma Sistermleri Sanayi A.S. (Cantas), as well as on a country-wide basis, effective November 4, 2021. <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  The petitioners in this inquiry are the American HFC Coalition which consists of its individual members Arkema, Inc., The Chemours Company FC LLC, Honeywell International Inc., and Mexichem Fluor Inc. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Circumvention Determination</HD> We determine that imports of R-410A completed in Türkiye by Cantas, using China-origin HFC components that are subsequently exported from Türkiye to the United States, are circumventing the <E T="03">Order</E> . As a result, in accordance with section 781(b) of the Act, we determine that this merchandise should be included within the scope of the <E T="03">Order</E> . For a detailed explanation of our determination with respect to Cantas, <E T="03">see Preliminary Determination</E> PDM, the Issues and Decision Memorandum, and the “Use of Adverse Facts Available” section below. We also determine that imports of R-410A completed in Türkiye using China-origin HFC components, that are subsequently exported from Türkiye to the United States, would be circumventing the <E T="03">Order</E> whether such imports were by one company, or all companies. Accordingly, we are applying our decision on a country-wide basis. As a result, in accordance with section 781(b) of the Act, we determine that this merchandise should be included within the scope of the <E T="03">Order; see</E> the “Suspension of Liquidation and Cash Deposit Requirements” section, below, for details regarding suspension of liquidation and cash deposit requirements. <E T="03">See</E> the “Certifications” and “Certification Requirements for Türkiye” sections below for details regarding the use of certifications for inquiry merchandise exported from Türkiye. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Use of Adverse Facts Available (AFA)</HD> In this inquiry, Commerce continues to find that necessary information is not available on the record with respect to Cantas within the meaning of section 776(a)(1) of the Act, and that Cantas withheld requested information, failed to provide requested information by the deadline or in the form or manner requested, and significantly impeded the inquiry pursuant to sections 776(a)(1), (A), (B), and (C) of the Act. Moreover, Commerce continues to find that this company failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of its ability to provide the requested information pursuant to section 776(b)(1) of the Act. Consequently, we continue to use adverse inferences with respect to Cantas in selecting from among the facts otherwise available on the record, pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, for the reasons discussed in the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> and the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> Based on AFA, we determine that Cantas exported inquiry merchandise and that U.S. entries of that merchandise are circumventing the <E T="03">Order</E> . Interested parties that wish to have their suspended entries, if any, reviewed should request an administrative review of the relevant suspended entries during the next anniversary month of the <E T="03">Order</E> ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> August 2024). <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Additionally, we are precluding Cantas from participating in the certification program for exports of R-410A completed in Türkiye and subsequently exported from Türkiye to the United States. <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination</E> PDM; <E T="03">see also</E> Issues and Decision Memorandum. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.213(b). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Determination of No Shipments</HD> Based on the information provided by ICE Sogutma Sanayi Ve Ticaret Ltd. (ICE) in this circumvention inquiry, and Commerce's verification of the information provided by ICE, <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce continues to find, as it did in the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> that ICE had no shipments of inquiry merchandise to the United States during the period of inquiry, January 1, 2019 through June 30, 2023. <SU>10</SU> <FT ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 36k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━