Certain Epoxy Resins From India: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-533-926]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Epoxy Resins From India: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures</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 imports of certain epoxy resins (epoxy resins) from India are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV). The period of investigation (POI) is April 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. Interested parties are invited to comment on this preliminary determination. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable November 13, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Sean Grossnickle, 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) 482-3818. </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 April 29, 2024. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On August 12, 2024, Commerce postponed the preliminary determination of this investigation until November 6, 2024. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Expoxy Resins from the People's Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair Value Invesitgations</E> , 89 FR 33324 (April 29, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Tolling of Deadlines for Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,” dated July 22, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Expoxy Resins from the People's Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand: Postponement of Preliminary Determinations of Antidumping Duty Investigations</E> , 89 FR 65583 (August 12, 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 Certain Epoxy Resins from India” 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 epoxy resins from India. 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>5</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>6</SU> <FTREF/> Certain interested parties commented on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice,</E> as well as additional language proposed by Commerce. For a summary of the product coverage comments and rebuttal responses submitted to the record for this preliminary determination, and accompanying discussion and analysis of all comments timely received, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce is not preliminarily modifying the scope language as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice. See</E> the scope in Appendix I to this notice. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2), interested parties may submit additional comments on the scope of this investigation in scope case briefs, which may be submitted no later than 30 days after the issuance of the Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</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>6</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation Notice,</E> 89 FR at 33324-25. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Less-Than-Fair-Value and Countervailing Duty Investigations of Certain Epoxy Resins from the People's Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand: Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum,” dated concurrently with this preliminary determination (Preliminary Scope Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with section 731 of the Act. Commerce has calculated export prices in accordance with section 772(a) of the Act. Constructed export prices have been calculated in accordance with section 772(b) of the Act. Normal value is calculated in accordance with section 773 of the Act. Furthermore, pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, Commerce has preliminarily relied upon facts otherwise available, with adverse inferences, for Champion Advanced Materials (Champion). For a full description of the methodology underlying the preliminary determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Sections 733(d)(1)(ii) and 735(c)(5)(A) of the Act provide that, in the preliminary determination, Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for all exporters and producers not individually examined. This rate shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated weighted-average dumping margins established for exporters and producers individually investigated, excluding rates that are zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. In this investigation, Commerce preliminarily determined an estimated weighted-average dumping margin for Atul Limited (Atul) that is not zero, <E T="03">de minimis</E> or based entirely on facts otherwise available. The estimated weighted-average dumping margin preliminarily determined for Champion is based on total facts available with an adverse inference. Consequently, for this preliminary determination, the estimated weighted-average dumping margin calculated for Atul is the estimated weighted-average dumping margin for all other producers and exporters. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Determination</HD> Commerce preliminarily determines that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist: <GPOTABLE COLS="3" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s100,16,16"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Exporter or producer</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Weighted-average <ENT>12.01</ENT> <ENT>10.52</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">Champion Advanced Materials</ENT> <ENT>* 15.68</ENT> <ENT>* 0.00</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">All Others</ENT> <ENT>12.01</ENT> <ENT>10.52</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>* Rate based on facts available with adverse inferences.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1"> Suspension of Liquidation  Adjusted for export subsidies of 1.49 percent (comprised of 0.77 percent for the duty drawback program and 0.72 percent for the remissions of duties and taxes on export products program) for Atul and All Others. Adjusted for 91.04 percent (all programs) for Champion. <E T="03">See Certain Epoxy Resins from India: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination,</E> 89 FR 74889 (September 13, 2024), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum. </FTNT> In accordance with section 733(d)(2) of the Act, Commerce will direct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of entries of subject merchandise, as described 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> . Further, pursuant to section 733(d)(1)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.205(d), Commerce will instruct CBP to require a cash deposit equal to the estimated weighted-average dumping margin as follows and as adjusted below: (1) the cash deposit rate for the exporters 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 company 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. Commerce normally adjusts the cas ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 23k characters. 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