Certain Tungsten Shot From the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigation

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-570-179]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Tungsten Shot From the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigation</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable August 6, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Samuel Evans, AD/CVD Operations, Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2420. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petition</HD> On July 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received a countervailing duty (CVD) petition concerning imports of certain tungsten shot (tungsten shot) from the People's Republic of China (China) filed in proper form on behalf of Tungsten Parts Wyoming, Inc. (the petitioner), a domestic producer of tungsten shot. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The Petition was accompanied by an antidumping duty (AD) petition concerning imports of tungsten shot from China. <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 July 10, 2024 (Petition). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled the deadline for this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The deadline for the initiation is now August 6, 2024. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated July 22, 2024. </FTNT> Between July 12 and 30, 2024, Commerce requested supplemental information from the petitioner regarding the Petition in supplemental questionnaires. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> The petitioner responded to Commerce's supplemental questionnaires between July 18 and August 1, 2024. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letters, “Supplemental Questions,” dated July 12, 2024 (General Issues Questionnaire); “Supplemental Questions,” dated July 15, 2024; and “Supplemental Questions,” dated July 25, 2024; <E T="03">see also</E> Memorandum, “Phone Call with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated July 22, 2024 (July 22 Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Petitioner's Response to Supplemental Questions Regarding Common Issues and Injury Volume I of the Petitions,” dated July 18, 2024 (First General Issues Supplement); “Petitioner's Response to Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume II of the Petitions,” dated July 18, 2024; “Petitioner's Response to Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume III of the Petitions,” dated July 22, 2024; “Petitioner's Response to Second Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume I of the Petitions,” dated July 24, 2024 (Second General Issues Supplement); “Petitioner's Response to Third Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume I of the Petitions,” dated July 26, 2024 (Third General Issues Supplement); and “Response to Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume III of the Petition,” dated August 1, 2024. </FTNT> In accordance with section 702(b)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the petitioner alleges that the Government of China (GOC) is providing countervailable subsidies, within the meaning of sections 701 and 771(5) of the Act, to Chinese producers of tungsten shot, and that such imports are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, the industry producing tungsten shot in the United States. Consistent with section 702(b)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.202(b), the alleged programs for which we are initiating this CVD investigation are supported by information in the Petition that is reasonably available to the petitioner. Commerce finds that the petitioner filed the Petition on behalf of the domestic industry because the petitioner is an interested party as defined in section 771(9)(C) of the Act. Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support with respect to the initiation of the requested CVD investigation. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> section on “Determination of Industry Support for the Petition,” <E T="03">infra.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Period of Investigation</HD> Because the Petition was filed on July 10, 2024, the period of investigation (POI) is January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.204(b)(2). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The merchandise covered by this investigation is tungsten shot from China. For a full description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> the appendix to this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on Scope of the Investigation</HD> Between July 12 and July 22, 2024, Commerce requested information and clarification from the petitioner regarding the proposed scope to ensure that the scope language in the Petition is an accurate reflection of the products for which the domestic industry is seeking relief. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Between July 18 and July 24, 2024, the petitioner provided clarifications and revised the scope. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> The description of merchandise covered by this investigation, as described in the appendix to this notice, reflects these clarifications. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> General Issues Questionnaire; <E T="03">see also</E> July 22 Memorandum. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> First General Issues Supplement at 1; <E T="03">see also</E> Second General Issues Supplement at 1-2. </FTNT> As discussed in the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, we are setting aside a period for parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>10</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 determination. If scope comments include factual information, all such factual information should be limited to public information. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> To facilitate preparation of its questionnaires, Commerce requests that scope comments be submitted by 5 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on August 26, 2024, which is 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. Any rebuttal scope comments, which may include factual information, must be filed by 5 p.m. ET on September 5, 2024, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties,</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>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> Commerce requests that any factual information that the parties consider relevant to the scope of the investigation be submitted during the time period identified above. However, if a party subsequently finds that additional factual information pertaining to the scope of the investigation may be relevant, the party may contact Commerce and request permission to submit the additional information. All scope comments must also be filed on the records of the concurrent AD 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 <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help/Handbook_on_Electronic_Filing_Procedures.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Consultations</HD> Pursuant to sections 702(b)(4)(A)(i) and (ii) of the Act, Commerce notified the GOC of the receipt of the Petition and provided an opportunity for consultations with respect to the Petition. <SU>13</SU> <FTREF/> While the GOC provided comments on the Petition, it did not request consultations. <SU>14</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>13</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letter, Invitation for Consultations, dated July 15, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>14</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> GOC's Letter, “Comments on Countervailing Duty Petition on Certain Tungsten Shot from the People's Republic of China (C-570-179),” dated July 28, 2024. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Determination of Industry Support for the Petition</HD> Section 702(b)(1) of the Act requires that a petition be filed on behalf of the domestic industry. Section 702(c)(4)(A) of the Act provides that a petition meets this requirement if the domestic producers or workers who support the petition account for: (i) at least 25 percent of the total production of the domestic like product; and (ii) more than 50 percent of the production of the domestic like product ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 34k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━