Citric Acid and Certain Citrate Salts From Belgium: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2023-2024

<NOTICE> DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE <SUBAGY>International Trade Administration</SUBAGY> <DEPDOC>[A-423-813]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Citric Acid and Certain Citrate Salts From Belgium: Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review; 2023-2024</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 Citribel nv. (Citribel) did not sell subject merchandise in the United States at prices below normal value (NV) during the period of review (POR), July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024. We invite interested parties to comment on these preliminary results. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> Applicable August 22, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Deborah Cohen, AD/CVD Operations, Office III, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-4521. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Background</HD> On July 25, 2018, Commerce published the antidumping duty (AD) order on citric acid and certain citrate salts (citric acid) from Belgium in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> . <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> On August 14, 2024, pursuant to section 751(a)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), Commerce initiated an AD administrative review of the <E T="03">Order.</E> <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> During the course of this administrative review, Citribel responded to Commerce's questionnaire and supplemental questionnaires. For further details, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">See Citric Acid and Certain Citrate Salts from Belgium, Colombia and Thailand: Antidumping Duty Orders,</E> 83 FR 35214 (July 25, 2018) ( <E T="03">Order</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>   <E T="03">See Initiation of Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Administrative Reviews,</E> 89 FR 66035 (August 14, 2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> Memorandum, “Decision Memorandum for the Preliminary Results of the Antidumping Duty Administrative Review: Citric Acid and Certain Citrate Salts from Belgium; 2023-2024,” dated concurrently with, and hereby adopted by, this notice (Preliminary Decision Memorandum). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Scope of the Order</HD> The merchandise covered by this <E T="03">Order</E> includes all grades and granulation sizes of citric acid, sodium citrate, and potassium citrate in their unblended forms, whether dry or in solution, and regardless of packaging type. For a full description of the scope of the <E T="03">Order, see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. <HD SOURCE="HD1">Methodology</HD> Commerce is conducting this review in accordance with section 751(a) of the Act. Export price has been calculated in accordance with section 772(a) of the Act, and NV was calculated in accordance with section 773 of the Act. For a full description of the methodology underlying our conclusions, <E T="03">see</E> the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. A list of the topics discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is attached as an appendix 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> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Preliminary Results of the Review</HD> Commerce preliminarily determines that the following estimated weighted-average dumping margin exists for the period July 1, 2023, through June 30, 2024: <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L2,tp0,i1" CDEF="s50,15C"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1">Exporter/producer</CHED> <CHED H="1"> Weighted-average <ENT>0.00</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Disclosure</HD> Commerce intends to disclose its calculations and analysis performed to interested parties for these preliminary results 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">Public Comment</HD> Case briefs or other written comments may be submitted to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c)(1)(ii), we have modified the deadline for interested parties to submit case briefs to Commerce to no later than 21 days after the date of the publication of this notice. <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> Rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised in the case briefs, may be filed not later than five days after the date for filing case briefs. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Interested parties who submit case or rebuttal briefs in this proceeding must submit: (1) a table of contents listing each issue; and (2) a table of authorities. <SU>6</SU> <FTREF/> All briefs must be filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety in ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the established deadline. <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.309. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.309(d); <E T="03">see also Administrative Protective Order, Service, and Other Procedures in Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings,</E> 88 FR 67069, 67077 (September 29, 2023) ( <E T="03">APO and Service Final Rule</E> ). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2). </FTNT> As provided under 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), in prior proceedings we have encouraged interested parties to provide an executive summary of their brief that should be limited to five pages total, including footnotes. In this review, we instead request that interested parties provide at the beginning of their briefs a public, executive summary for each issue raised in their briefs. <SU>7</SU> <FTREF/> Further, we request that interested parties limit their executive summary of each issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. We intend to use the executive summaries as the basis of the comment summaries included in the issues and decision memorandum that will accompany the final results in this administrative review. We request that interested parties include footnotes for relevant citations in the executive summary of each issue. Note that Commerce has amended certain of its requirements pertaining to the service of documents in 19 CFR 351.303(f). <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>  We use the term “issue” here to describe an argument that Commerce would normally address in a comment of the Issues and Decision Memorandum. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>8</SU>   <E T="03">See APO and Service Final Rule.</E> </FTNT> Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, filed electronically via ACCESS. Requests should contain: (1) the party's name, address, and telephone number; (2) the number of participants and whether any participant is a foreign national; and (3) a list of issues to be discussed. Oral presentations at the hearing will be limited to issues raised in the briefs. If a request for a hearing is made, Commerce intends to hold a hearing at a date and time to be determined. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> Parties should confirm the date, time, and location of the hearing two days before the scheduled date. <FTNT> <SU>9</SU>   <E T="03">See</E> 19 CFR 351.310(d). </FTNT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Assessment Rates</HD> Pursuant to section 751(a)(2)(A) of the Act, upon completion of the final results of this administrative review, Commerce shall determine, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate entries of subject merchandise covered by this review. <SU>10</SU> <FTREF/> If the weighted-average dumping margin for Citribel ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> the sole individually-examined respondent in this review) is not zero or <E T="03">de minimis</E> ( <E T="03">i.e.,</E> greater than or equal to 0.5 percent) in the final results of this review, we will calculate importer-specific <E T="03">ad valorem</E> assessment rates for the merchandise based on the ratio of the total amount of dumping calculated for the examined sales made during the POR to each importer and the total entered value of those same sales, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.212(b)(1). Where we do not have entered values for all U.S. sales to a particular importer, we will calculate an importer-specific, per-unit assessment rate on the basis of the ratio of the total amount of dumping calculated for the importer's examined sales to the total quantity of those sales. <SU>11</SU> <FTREF/> To determine whether an importer-specific, per-unit assessment rate is <E T="03">de minimis,</E> in accordance with 19 CFR 351.106(c)(2), we also will calculate an importer-specific <E T="03">ad valorem</E> ratio based on estimated entered values. Where an importer-specific <E T="03">ad valorem</E> assessment rate is zero or <E T="03">de minimis</E> in the final results of the review, we will instruct CBP to liquidate the appropriate entries without regard to antidumping duties. <SU>12</SU> <FTREF/> The final results of this administrative review sh ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 15k characters. 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