Certain Freight Rail Couplers and Parts Thereof From the Czech Republic and India: Initiation of Less-Than-Fair-Value Investigations

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-533-940, A-851-806]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Certain Freight Rail Couplers and Parts Thereof From the Czech Republic and India: 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 August 12, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Sofia Pedrelli and Andrew Hart (the Czech Republic) at (202) 482-4310 and (202) 482-1058, respectively, and Colin Thrasher and Eliza DeLong (India) at (202) 482-3004 and (202) 482-3878, respectively, AD/CVD Operations, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">The Petitions</HD> On July 23, 2025, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) received antidumping duty (AD) petitions concerning imports of certain freight rail couplers and parts thereof (freight rail couplers) from the Czech Republic and India filed in proper form on behalf of the Coalition of Freight Coupler Producers (the petitioner). <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> The AD Petitions were accompanied by a countervailing duty (CVD) petition concerning imports of freight rail couplers from India. <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letter, “Petitions for the Imposition of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Orders,” dated July 23, 2025 (Petitions). The members of the Coalition of Freight Coupler Producers are McConway and Torley, LLC (McConway and Torley), and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union (USW). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">Id.</E> </FTNT> Between July 28 and August 8, 2025, Commerce requested supplemental information pertaining to certain aspects of the Petitions in supplemental questionnaires. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> The petitioner responded to Commerce's supplemental questionnaires between July 30 and August 11, 2025. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Commerce's Letters, “Supplemental Questions,” dated July 28, 2025 (First General Issues Questionnaire); <E T="03">see also</E> First Country-Specific AD Supplemental Questionnaires: Czech Republic Supplemental and India Supplemental, dated July 28, 2025; “Supplemental Questions,” dated August 4, 2025 (Second General Issues Questionnaire); Second Country-Specific AD Supplemental Questionnaires: Czech Republic Supplemental and India Supplemental, dated August 4, 2025; and “Supplemental Questions,” dated August 8, 2025 (August 8, 2025, Supplemental Questionnaire). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Petitioner's Letters, “Response to Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume I of the Petition,” dated July 30, 2025 (First General Issues Supplement); <E T="03">see also</E> First Country-Specific AD Supplemental Responses: Czech Republic AD Supplement and India AD Supplement, dated July 31, 2025; “Response to Second Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume I of the Petition,” dated August 6, 2025 (Second General Issues Supplement); Second Country-Specific Second AD Supplemental Responses: Second Czech Republic AD Supplement, dated August 6, 2025, and Second India AD Supplement, dated August 7, 2025; and “Response to Second Supplemental Questions Regarding Volume IV of the Petition,” dated August 11, 2025 (August 11, 2025, Supplement). </FTNT> In accordance with section 732(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), the petitioner alleges that imports of freight rail couplers from the Czech Republic and India 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 freight rail couplers 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>5</SU> <FTREF/> Commerce also finds that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support for the initiation of the requested LTFV investigations. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  The members of the Coalition (McConway and Torley and the USW) are interested parties as defined under sections 771(9)(C) and (D) of the Act, respectively. </FTNT> <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 July 23, 2025, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.204(b)(1), the period of investigation (POI) for the Czech Republic and India LTFV investigations is July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Investigations</HD> The products covered by these investigations are freight rail couplers from the Czech Republic and India. 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> On August 4, 2025, 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>7</SU> <FTREF/> On August 6, 2025, the petitioner provided clarifications and revised the scope. <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> The description of the merchandise covered by these investigations, as described in the appendix to this notice, reflects these clarifications. <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Second General Issues Supplemental Questionnaire. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Second General Issues Supplement at 1-3 and Exhibits I-Supp-1 through I-Supp-3. </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>9</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>10</SU> <FTREF/> all such factual information should be limited to public information. Commerce requests that interested parties provide at the beginning of their scope comments a public executive summary for each comment or issue raised in their submission. Commerce further requests that interested parties limit their public executive summary of each comment or issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. Commerce intends to use the public executive summaries as the basis of the comment summaries included in the analysis of scope comments. To facilitate preparation of its questionnaires, Commerce requests that scope comments be submitted by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on September 2, 2025, which is the next business day after 20 calendar days from the signature date of this notice. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> 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 September 12, 2025, which is 10 calendar days from the initial comment deadline. <FTNT> <SU>9</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>10</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.102(b)(21) (defining “factual information”). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>11</SU>  The deadline for scope comments falls on September 1, 2025, which is a federal holiday. In accordance with 19 CFR 351.303(b)(1), Commerce will accept scope comments filed by 5.00 p.m. ET on September 2, 2025 (“For both electronically 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 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>12</SU> <FTREF/> An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety by the time and date it is due. <FTNT> <SU>12</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 Com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 42k characters. 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