Paper File Folders From Cambodia and Sri Lanka: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-555-005, A-542-806]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Paper File Folders From Cambodia and Sri Lanka: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable November 12, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Kelsie Hohenberger (Cambodia) and Rachel Jennings (Sri Lanka), AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-2517 and (202) 482-1110, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petitions</HD> On October 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received antidumping duty (AD) petitions concerning imports of paper file folders from Cambodia and Sri Lanka filed in proper form on behalf of the Coalition of Domestic Folder Manufacturers (the petitioner), <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> the members of which are domestic producers of paper file folders. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The AD Petitions were accompanied by a countervailing duty (CVD) petition concerning imports of paper file folders from Cambodia. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>  The members of the Coalition of Domestic Folder Manufacturers (the Coalition) are: Smead Manufacturing Company, Inc. (Smead) and TOPS Products LLC (TOPS). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioners' Letter, “Petitions for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties,” dated October 21, 2024 (Petitions). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Between October 25 and 28, 2024, Commerce requested supplemental information pertaining to certain aspects of the Petitions in supplemental questionnaires. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> The petitioner responded to Commerce's supplemental questionnaires on October 29 and 30, 2024. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letters, “Supplemental Questions,” dated October 25, 2024 (General Issues Questionnaire); <E T="03">see also</E> Country-Specific AD Supplemental Questionnaires: Cambodia Supplemental and Sri Lanka Supplemental, dated October 25 and 26, 2024, respectively. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Response of Petitioner to Volume I Supplemental Questionnaire,” dated October 29, 2024 (General Issues Supplement); <E T="03">see also</E> Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: Cambodia AD Supplement and Sri Lanka AD Supplement, dated October 30, 2024. </FTNT> In accordance with section 732(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the petitioner alleges that imports of paper file folders from Cambodia and Sri Lanka are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) within the meaning of section 731 of the Act, and that imports of such products are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, the paper file folders industry in the United States. Consistent with section 732(b)(1) of the Act, the Petitions were accompanied by information reasonably available to the petitioner supporting its allegations. Commerce finds that the petitioner filed the Petitions on behalf of the domestic industry, because the petitioner is an interested party, as defined in section 771(9)(F) of the Act. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support for the initiation of the requested LTFV investigations. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>  Smead and TOPS are interested parties under section 771(9)(C) of the Act, while the Coalition is an interested party under section 771(9)(F) of the Act. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> section on “Determination of Industry Support for the Petitions,” <E T="03">infra.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Periods of Investigation</HD> Because the Petitions were filed on October 21, 2024, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the period of investigation (POI) for the Cambodia and Sri Lanka LTFV investigations is October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigations</HD> The products covered by these investigations are paper file folders from Cambodia and Sri Lanka. For a full description of the scope of these investigations, <E T="03">see</E> the appendix to this notice. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on the Scope of the Investigations</HD> As discussed in the <E T="03">Preamble</E> to Commerce's regulations, we are setting aside a period for interested parties to raise issues regarding product coverage ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> scope). <SU>8</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 determinations. If scope comments include factual information, <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> all such factual information should be limited to public information. To facilitate preparation of its questionnaires, Commerce requests that scope comments be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on December 2, 2024, which is 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. Any rebuttal comments, which may include factual information, and should also be limited to public information, must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on December 12, 2024, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See Antidumping Duties; Countervailing Duties, Final Rule,</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>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> Commerce requests that any factual information that parties consider relevant to the scope of these investigations be submitted during that period. However, if a party subsequently finds that additional factual information pertaining to the scope of the investigations may be relevant, the party must contact Commerce and request permission to submit the additional information. All scope comments must be filed simultaneously on the records of the concurrent LTFV 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>10</SU> <FTREF/> An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety by the time and date it is due. <FTNT> <SU>10</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 a handbook can be found at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/help/Handbook_on_Electronic_Filing_Procedures.pdf.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Comments on Product Characteristics</HD> Commerce is providing interested parties an opportunity to comment on the appropriate physical characteristics of paper file folders to be reported in response to Commerce's AD questionnaires. This information will be used to identify the key physical characteristics of the subject merchandise in order to report the relevant cost of production (COP) accurately, as well as to develop appropriate product comparison criteria. Interested parties may provide any information or comments that they feel are relevant to the development of an accurate list of physical characteristics. Specifically, they may provide comments as to which characteristics are appropriate to use as: (1) general product characteristics; and (2) product comparison criteria. We note that it is not always appropriate to use all product characteristics as product comparison criteria. We base product comparison criteria on meaningful commercial differences among products. In other words, although there may be some physical product characteristics utilized by manufacturers to describe paper file folders, it may be that only a select few product characteristics take into account commercially meaningful physical characteristics. In addition, interested parties may comment on the order in which the physical characteristics should be used in matching products. Generally, Commerce attempts to list the most important physical characteristics first and the least important characteristics last. In order to consider the suggestions of interested parties in developing and issuing the AD questionnaires, all product characteristics comments must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on December 2, 2024, which is 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. Any rebuttal comments must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on December 12, 2024, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. All comments and submissions to Commerce must be filed electronically using ACCESS, as explained above, on the record of each of the LTFV investigations. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Determination of Industry Support for the Petitions</HD> Section 732(b)(1) of the Act requires that a petition be filed on behalf of the domestic industry. Section 732(c)(4)(A) of the Act provides that a petition meets this requirement if the domestic produ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 40k characters. 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