Melamine From the Netherlands: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-421-817]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Melamine From the Netherlands: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value</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 melamine from the Netherlands is being, or is likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation 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 September 24, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Fred Baker, AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2924. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> This preliminary determination is made in accordance with section 733(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce published the notice of initiation of this investigation on March 11, 2024. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On June 18, 2024, Commerce postponed the preliminary determination of this investigation. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The deadline for the preliminary determination is now September 18, 2024. <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Melamine from Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations,</E> 89 FR 17413 (March 11, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Melamine from Germany, India, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago: Postponement of Preliminary Determinations in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations,</E> 89 FR 52437 (June 24, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated July 22, 2024. </FTNT> For a complete description of the events that followed the initiation of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> A list of topics included 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>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Affirmative Determination in the Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigation of Melamine from the Netherlands,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The product covered by this investigation is melamine from the Netherlands. For a full 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>5</SU> <FTREF/> we set aside a period of time, as stated in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice,</E> for parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> No interested party commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice.</E> Commerce is not modifying the scope language as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice. See</E> the complete description of the scope in Appendix I to this notice. <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties,</E> 62 FR 27296, 27323 (May 19, 1997) ( <E T="03">Preamble</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation Notice,</E> 89 FR at 17413. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with section 731 of the Act. Pursuant to section 776(a) of the Act, Commerce has preliminarily relied upon facts otherwise available to assign an estimated weighted-average dumping margin to OCI Nitrogen, the mandatory respondent in this investigation because OCI Nitrogen did not submit a complete response to Commerce's antidumping duty questionnaire. Further, Commerce preliminarily determines that OCI Nitrogen failed to cooperate by not acting to the best of its ability to comply with a request for information and Commerce is using an adverse inference in selecting from among the facts otherwise available ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> applying adverse facts available (AFA)) to this respondent, in accordance with section 776(b) of the Act. For a full description of the methodology underlying our preliminary determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Sections 733(d)(1)(ii) of the Act provides that, in the preliminary determination, Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for all exporters and producers not individually investigated in accordance with section 735(c)(5) of the Act. Section 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act states that generally the estimated rate for all others shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually investigated, excluding any zero and <E T="03">de minimis</E> rates, and any rates determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. The estimated weighted-average dumping margin in this preliminary determination was determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. In cases where no weighted-average dumping margins other than zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or those determined entirely under section 776 of the Act have been established for individually examined entities, in accordance with section 735(c)(5)(B) of the Act, Commerce typically calculates a simple average of the dumping margins alleged in the petition and applies the results to all other entities not individually examined. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See, e.g., Thermal Paper from Spain: Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value,</E> 86 FR 54162, 54163 (September 30, 2021), and accompanying Issues and Decision Memorandum. </FTNT> In the Petition, <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Cornerstone Chemical Company (the petitioner) alleged two estimated dumping margins for the Netherlands, 34.84 and 72.16 percent. Therefore, consistent with our practice, for the all-others rate in this investigation, we preliminarily assign a simple average of the dumping margins alleged in the Petition, which is 53.50 percent. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Melamine from Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Qatar, and Trinidad and Tobago: Petition for the Imposition of Antidumping Duties,” dated February 14, 2024 (Petition); Petitioner's Letter, “Petitioner's Response to Volume V Supplemental Questionnaire (Netherlands Antidumping),” dated February 22, 2024 (Netherlands SQR). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Determination</HD> Commerce preliminarily determines that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist during the period January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023: <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s25,9"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Exporter/producer</CHED> <ENT I="01">OCI Nitrogen B.V</ENT> <ENT>* 72.16</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">All Others</ENT> <ENT>53.50</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>* Rate is based on AFA.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Suspension of Liquidation</HD> In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, Commerce will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of all entries of melamine, as described in the “Scope of the Investigation” in Appendix I, from OCI Nitrogen that are entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, Commerce will direct CBP to suspend liquidation of all other entries of melamine from the Netherlands, as described in the “Scope of the Investigation” in Appendix I, entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of this notice in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . We will also instruct CBP, pursuant to section 733(d)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(d), to require a cash deposit equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin or the estimated all-others rate, as follows: (1) the cash deposit rate for the respondents listed above will be equal to the company-specific estimated weighted-average dumping margins determined in this preliminary determination; (2) if the exporter is not a respondent identified above, but the producer is, then the cash deposit rate will be equal to the company-specific estimated weighted-average dumping margin established for that producer of the subject merchandise; and (3) the cash deposit rate for all other producers and exporters will be equal to the all-others estimated weighted-average dumping margin. <HD SOUR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. 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