Certain Paper Plates From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-552-839]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Paper Plates From the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part</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) determines that certain paper plates (paper plates) from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnam) are being, or are likely to be, sold in the United States at less than fair value (LTFV) for the period of investigation (POI) July 1, 2023, through December 31, 2023. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable January 28, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Bryan Hansen, AD/CVD Operations, Office I, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-3683. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On September 5, 2024, Commerce published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> its preliminary affirmative determination in the LTFV investigation of paper plates from Vietnam and invited interested parties to comment. <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> For a complete description of the events that followed the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination, see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Certain Paper Plates from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam: Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value, Preliminary Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part, Postponement of Final Determination, and Extension of Provisional Measures,</E> 89 FR 72375 (September 5, 2024) ( <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> ), and accompanying Preliminary Decision Memorandum (PDM). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Issues and Decision Memorandum for the Final Affirmative Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value of Certain Paper Plates from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Issues and Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> The Issues and 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 Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx</E> . <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigation</HD> The products covered by this investigation are paper plates from Vietnam. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, <E T="03">see</E> Appendix I. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope Comments</HD> We received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination</E> . Therefore, we made no changes to the scope of the investigation. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Verification</HD> Commerce verified sales and factors of production information submitted by Go-Pak Paper Products Vietnam Co., Ltd. (Go-Pak Vietnam) for use in our final determination, consistent with section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> We used standard verification procedures, including an examination of relevant sales and accounting records, and original source documents provided by Go-Pak Vietnam. <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memoranda, “Factors of Production Verification Report,” dated October 15, 2024; and “Sales Verification Report,” dated October 25, 2024. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Analysis of Comments Received</HD> The issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by the parties in this investigation are discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. A list of the issues raised addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum is attached to this notice as Appendix II. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part</HD> Commerce preliminarily determined, in accordance with section 733(e)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), and 19 CFR 351.206(c)(1), that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of paper plates for the Vietnam-wide entity but not for Go-Pak Vietnam. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Further, for the final determination, pursuant to section 735(a)(3)(B) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.206, we continue to find that critical circumstances exist for the Vietnam-wide entity and that critical circumstances do not exist for Go-Pak Vietnam. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination,</E> 89 FR at 72376. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Issues and Decision Memorandum at 2-4. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Changes Since the Preliminary Determination</HD> Based on our review and analysis of the information at verification and comments received from interested parties, we made certain changes to the calculation of Go-Pak Vietnam's estimated weighted-average dumping margin. For a discussion of these changes, <E T="03">see</E> the Issues and Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Vietnam-Wide Entity and Use of Adverse Facts Available</HD> Consistent with the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce continues to find, pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act, that the use of facts otherwise available, with adverse inferences, is warranted in determining the dumping rate for the Vietnam-wide entity. For this final determination there is no new information on the record that would cause us to revisit our decision in the preliminary determination. Therefore, as adverse facts available (AFA), we have continued to assign a rate of 165.27 percent, which is the highest dumping margin alleged in the petition, to the Vietnam-wide entity. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See Preliminary Determination</E> PDM at 11-15. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Separate Rates</HD> No interested party commented on Commerce's preliminary separate rate determination  <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> and we have no basis to reconsider this determination. Accordingly, we continue to find that Go-Pak Vietnam is the sole respondent eligible for a separate rate. <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> at 9-11. </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Combination Rates</HD> Consistent with the <E T="03">Preliminary Determination,</E> and Policy Bulletin 05.1, <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce calculated a producer/exporter combination rate for Go-Pak Vietnam, <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the sole respondent eligible for a separate rate. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Enforcement and Compliance's Policy Bulletin No. 05.1, regarding, “Separate-Rates Practice and Application of Combination Rates in Antidumping Investigations involving Non-Market Economy Countries,” (April 5, 2005) (Policy Bulletin 05.1), available at <E T="03">https://access.trade.gov/Resources/policy/bull05-1.pdf</E> . </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Final Determination</HD> Commerce determines that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margins exist: <GPOTABLE COLS="4" OPTS="L2,nj,tp0,i1" CDEF="s50,r50,16,17"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Exporter</CHED> <CHED H="1">Producer</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Weighted-average dumping margin (percent) </CHED> <CHED H="1"> Cash deposit rate (adjusted for export subsidy offset) <ENT I="01">Go-Pak Paper Products Vietnam Co., Ltd</ENT> <ENT>Go-Pak Paper Products Vietnam Co., Ltd</ENT> <ENT>30.42</ENT> <ENT>24.89</ENT> </ROW> <ROW EXPSTB="01"> <ENT I="01">Vietnam-Wide Entity</ENT> <ENT>* 165.27</ENT> <ENT>159.74</ENT> </ROW> <TNOTE>* Rate based on AFA.</TNOTE> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Disclosure</HD> Commerce intends to disclose the calculations performed in this final determination to interested parties within five days of any public announcement or, if there is no public announcement, within five days of the date of publication of this notice in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> in accordance with 19 CFR 351.224(b). <HD SOURCE="HD1">Continuation of Suspension of Liquidation</HD> In accordance with section 735(c)(1)(B) and (C) of the Act, we will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation of all appropriate entries of subject merchandise, as described in Appendix I of this notice, which were 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> for Go-Pak Vietnam. Section 733(e)(2) of the Act provides that, given an affirmative determination of critical circumstances, any suspension of liquidation shall apply to unliquidated entries of subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the later of: (a) the date which is 90 days before the date on which the suspension of liquidation was first ordered; or (b) the date on which notice of initiation of the investigation was published. Commerce finds that critical circumstances exist for imports of subject merchandise produced or exported by the Vietnam-wide entity. In accordance with section 733(e)(2)(A) of the Act, the suspension of liquidation shall apply to unliquidated entries of shipments of subject merchandise from t ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 19k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━