Float Glass Products From the People's Republic of China and Malaysia: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigations

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[C-570-189, C-557-833]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Float Glass Products From the People's Republic of China and Malaysia: Initiation of Countervailing Duty Investigations</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce. <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable December 31, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Nathan James (the People's Republic of China (China)), Mira Warrier, or Benjamin Nathan (Malaysia), AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-5305, (202) 482-8031, and (202) 482-3834, respectively. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petitions</HD> On November 21, 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received countervailing duty (CVD) petitions concerning imports of float glass products from China and Malaysia filed in proper form on behalf of Vitro Flat Glass, LLC and Vitro Meadville Flat Glass, LLC (the petitioner), a U.S. producer of float glass products. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The CVD Petitions were accompanied by antidumping duty (AD) petitions concerning imports of float glass products from China and Malaysia. <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 November 21, 2024 (Petitions). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Between November 25 and December 23, 2024, Commerce requested supplemental information pertaining to certain aspects of the Petitions. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> Between December 2 and 26, 2024, the petitioner filed timely responses to these requests for additional information. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letters, “Supplemental Questions,” dated November 26, 2024 (First General Issues Questionnaire); <E T="03">see also</E> Country-Specific CVD Supplemental Questionnaires: China Supplemental and Malaysia Supplemental, dated November 26, 2024; Memorandum, “Phone Call with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated December 4, 2024 (December 4, 2024, Memorandum); Memorandum, “Phone Call with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated December 9, 2024 (December 9, 2024, Memorandum); and Memorandum, “Phone Call with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated December 23, 2024 (December 23, 2024, Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Amendments to Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions; Volume SI—General Issues and Injury,” dated December 2, 2024 (First General Issues Supplement), “Amendments to Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions; Volume SS—Second Supplemental Responses,” dated December 6, 2024 (Second General Issues Supplement), and “Amendments to Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions; Volume SSS—Third Supplemental Responses,” dated December 10, 2024 (Third General Issues Supplement); <E T="03">see also</E> Country-Specific CVD Supplemental Responses: China CVD Supplement and India CVD Supplement, dated December 2, 2024 and December 3, 2024; and Petitioner's Letter, “Amendments to Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions—Exhibit SSSS-1,” dated December 26, 2024 (Revised Scope). </FTNT> On December 11, 2024, Commerce extended the initiation deadline by 20 days to poll the domestic industry in accordance with section 702(c)(4)(D) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), because it was “not clear from the Petitions whether the industry support criteria have been met. . . .”  <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See Notice of Extension of the Deadline for Determining the Adequacy of the Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions: Float Glass Products from the People's Republic of China and Malaysia,</E> 89 FR 102113, 102114 (December 17, 2024) ( <E T="03">Initiation Extension Notice</E> ). </FTNT> In accordance with section 702(b)(1) of the Act, the petitioner alleges that the Government of China (GOC) and the Government of Malaysia (GOM) (collectively, Governments) are providing countervailable subsidies, within the meaning of sections 701 and 771(5) of the Act, to producers of float glass products from China and Malaysia and that such imports are materially injuring, or threatening material injury to, the domestic industry producing float glass products in the United States. Consistent with section 702(b)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.202(b), for those alleged programs on which we are initiating CVD investigations, 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)(C) of the Act. Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support with respect to the initiation of the requested CVD investigations. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</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 November 21, 2024, the periods of investigation for the China and Malaysia CVD investigations are 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 Investigations</HD> The products covered by these investigations are float glass products from China and Malaysia. 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> Between November 25 and December 31, 2024, Commerce requested information and clarification from the petitioner regarding the proposed scope to ensure that the scope language in the Petitions is an accurate reflection of the products for which the domestic industry is seeking relief. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> Between December 2 and 31, 2024, the petitioner provided clarifications and revised the scope. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> The description of merchandise covered by these investigations, as described in the appendix to this notice, reflects these clarifications. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> First General Issues Questionnaire; <E T="03">see also</E> December 4, 2024, Memorandum; December 9, 2024, Memorandum; and December 23, 2024, Memorandum; and Memorandum, “Phone Call with Counsel to the Petitioner,” dated December 31, 2024 (December 31, 2024, Memorandum). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> First General Issues Supplement at SI-1 through SI-5 and Exhibits SI-1 and SI-2; <E T="03">see also</E> Second General Issues Supplement at SS-1 through SS-3 and Exhibits SS-1 and SS-2; Third General Issues Supplement at SSS-1 through SSS-7 and Exhibit SSS-1; Revised Scope at Exhibit SSSS-1, and December 31, 2024, Memorandum. </FTNT> 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>10</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce will consider all 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, 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 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on January 21, 2025, which is the next business day after 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> Any rebuttal comments, which may include factual information, must be filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on January 31, 2025, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>10</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>11</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>12</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.303(b)(1). The deadline for scope comments falls on January 20, 2025, which is a Federal holiday. In accordance with 19 CFR 351.303(b)(1), Commerce will accept comments filed by 5:00 p.m. ET on January 21, 2025 (“For both electronically filed and manually filed documents, if the applicable due date falls on a non-business day, the Secretary will accept documents that are filed on the next business day.”). </FTNT> Commerce requests that any factual information that parties consider relevant to the scope of the investigations be submitted during that time 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 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>13</SU> <FTREF/> An electronically file ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 39k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━