Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-570-177]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part, and Alignment of Final Determination With Final Antidumping Duty Determination</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 countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers and exporters of certain low speed personal transportation vehicles (LSPTVs) from the People's Republic of China (China). The period of investigation (POI) 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 December 6, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Dan Alexander, AD/CVD Operations, Office VII, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4313. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> This preliminary determination is made in accordance with section 703(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Commerce published the notice of initiation of this countervailing duty (CVD) investigation on July 16, 2024. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On July 25, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> On September 10, 2024, Commerce postponed the preliminary determination until November 25, 2024. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles from the People's Republic of China: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigation,</E> 89 FR 73371 (July 16, 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 25, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles from the People's Republic of China: Postponement of Preliminary Determination in the Countervailing Duty Investigation,</E> 89 FR 73371 (September 10, 2024). </FTNT> For a complete description of 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 discussed 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 of the Countervailing Duty Investigation of Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles from the People's Republic of China,” 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 LSPTVs from China. 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/> in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice</E> Commerce 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 less-than-fair-value (LTFV) and CVD investigations as it appeared in the <E T="03">Initiation Notice.</E> Commerce preliminary determined to modify the scope of this investigation to include one additional Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States Subheading ( <E T="03">i.e.</E> 8703.10.5060). <E T="03">See</E> the scope in Appendix I to this notice. Additionally, Commerce is proposing certain modifications to the language of the scope of these LTFV and CVD investigations and invite interested parties to submit comments. For further discussion, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Scope Modification Memorandum. <SU>7</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 49834. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Less-Than-Fair-Value and Countervailing Duty Investigations of Certain Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles from the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Scope Modification Memorandum,” dated concurrently with this notice (Preliminary Scope Modification Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this investigation in accordance with section 701 of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce preliminarily determines that there is a subsidy, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> a financial contribution by an “authority” that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> For a full description of the methodology underlying our preliminary determination, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 771(5)(B) and (D) of the Act regarding financial contribution; section 771(5)(E) of the Act regarding benefit; and section 771(5A) of the Act regarding specificity. </FTNT> Commerce notes that, in making these findings, it relied, in part, on facts available, and, because it finds that certain respondents and the Government of China did not act to the best of their ability to respond to Commerce's requests for information, it drew an adverse inference where appropriate in selecting from among the facts otherwise available. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> For further information, <E T="03">see</E> the “Use of Facts Otherwise Available and Adverse Inferences” section in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part</HD> In accordance with section 703(e)(1) of the Act, we preliminarily find that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise from Guangdong Lvtong New Energy Electric Vehicle Technology Co., Ltd. (Lvtong), and the companies who did not respond to our quantity and value (Q&V) questionnaire ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the non-responsive companies). <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> We also preliminarily find that critical circumstances do not exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise from Xiamen Dalle New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd (Xiamen Dalle) and all other producers and/or exporters. For a full discussion of our preliminary critical circumstances determination, <E T="03">see</E> the “Preliminary Critical Circumstances” section of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <FTNT> <SU>10</SU>  The companies that failed to respond to Commerce's Q&V questionnaire are: (1) Shandong Odes Industry Co. Ltd.; and (2) Hebei Machinery Import and Export Co., Ltd. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Alignment</HD> In accordance with section 705(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.210(b)(4), Commerce is aligning the final CVD determination in this investigation with the final determination in the concurrent LTFV investigation of LSPTVs from China, based on a request made by the petitioner. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> Consequently, the final CVD determination will be issued on the same date as the final LTFV determination, which is currently scheduled to be issued no later than April 8, 2025, unless postponed. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Request to Align Countervailing Duty Investigation Final Determination with Antidumping Duty Investigation Final Determination,” dated November 12, 2024. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>   <E T="03">See Low Speed Personal Transportation Vehicles from the People's Republic of China: Postponement of Preliminary Determination in the Less-Than-Fair Value Investigation,</E> 89 FR 89591 (November 13, 2024) ( <E T="03">LTFV Postponement</E> ). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">All-Others Rate</HD> Sections 703(d) and 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act provide that, in the preliminary determination, Commerce shall determine an estimated all-others rate for companies not individually examined. This rate shall be an amount equal to the weighted average of the estimated subsidy rates established for those companies individually examined, excluding any rates that are zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely under section 776 of the Act. In this investigation, Commerce preliminarily calculated total net subsidy rates for Xiamen Dalle and Lvtong that are not zero, <E T="03">de minimis,</E> or based entirely on the facts otherwise available. Because Commerce cal ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 28k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━