Polypropylene Corrugated Boxes From China and Vietnam; Scheduling of the Final Phase of Countervailing Duty and Antidumping Duty Investigation

<NOTICE> INTERNATIONAL TRADE COMMISSION <DEPDOC>[Investigation Nos. 701-TA-757 and 731-TA-1737-1738 (Final)]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Polypropylene Corrugated Boxes From China and Vietnam; Scheduling of the Final Phase of Countervailing Duty and Antidumping Duty Investigation</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> United States International Trade Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Notice. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> The Commission hereby gives notice of the scheduling of the final phase of countervailing duty investigation No. 701-TA-757 (Final) pursuant to the Tariff Act of 1930 to determine whether an industry in the United States is materially injured or threatened with material injury, or the establishment of an industry in the United States is materially retarded, by reason of imports of polypropylene corrugated boxes (“PC boxes”) from China, provided for in subheadings 3923.10.90 and 3923.50.00 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, preliminarily determined by the Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) to be subsidized by the Government of China. Commerce's preliminary determinations with respect to PC boxes from China and Vietnam, alleged to be sold in the United States at less than fair value, are pending. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> August 20, 2025. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Camille Bryan ((202) 205-2811), Office of Investigation, U.S. International Trade Commission, 500 E Street SW, Washington, DC 20436. Hearing-impaired persons can obtain information on this matter by contacting the Commission's TDD terminal on 202-205-1810. Persons with mobility impairments who will need special assistance in gaining access to the Commission should contact the Office of the Secretary at 202-205-2000. General information concerning the Commission may also be obtained by accessing its internet server ( <E T="03">https://www.usitc.gov</E> ). The public record for this investigation may be viewed on the Commission's electronic docket (EDIS) at <E T="03">https://edis.usitc.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: </HD> <E T="03">Scope.</E> — For purposes of this investigation, Commerce has defined the subject merchandise as polypropylene corrugated boxes. Polypropylene corrugated boxes are boxes, bins, totes, or other load-bearing containers made for holding goods, that are made of corrugated polypropylene sheets, also known as polypropylene hollow core sheets, polypropylene fluted sheets, polypropylene twin wall sheets, or multi wall sheets. Such polypropylene sheets are “corrugated,” “fluted,” or “hollow core,” meaning the inside of the sheet contains channels or pockets of air which make the sheets lightweight, while retaining strength and durability. Polypropylene corrugated boxes are typically produced from a plastic resin consisting of 50 percent or more polypropylene. Polypropylene corrugated boxes are covered by the scope irrespective of the particular mix of polypropylene homo-polymer, polypropylene co-polymer, recycled or virgin polypropylene, or ancillary chemicals such as electrostatic agents or flame retardants. Polypropylene corrugated boxes are formed by corrugated polypropylene sheets cut to length, die-cut into specific box shapes, and may be cut or scored to allow each side of the box to be folded into shape. Polypropylene corrugated boxes may include a tab or attached portion of polypropylene corrugated sheet (commonly referred to as a “manufacturer's joint”) that has been cut, slotted, or scored to facilitate the formation of the box by stapling, gluing, welding, or taping the sides together to form a tight seal. One-piece polypropylene corrugated boxes are die-cut or otherwise formed so that the top, bottom, and sides form a single, contiguous unit. Two-piece polypropylene corrugated boxes are those with a folded bottom and a folded top as separate pieces. Multi-piece polypropylene corrugated boxes are those with separate bottoms and tops that are fitted to a single folded piece comprising the sides of the box. Polypropylene corrugated boxes may be printed with ink or digital designs. The subject merchandise includes polypropylene corrugated boxes with or without handles, with or without lids or tops, with or without reinforcing wire, whether in a one-piece, two-piece, or multi-piece configuration, and whether folded into shape or in an unfolded form. The subject merchandise includes all polypropylene corrugated boxes regardless of size, shape, or dimension. The subject merchandise also includes polypropylene corrugated box lids or tops when imported separately from polypropylene corrugated boxes. <E T="03">Background.</E> —The final phase of this investigation is being scheduled pursuant to sections 705(b) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19 U.S.C. 1671d(b), as a result of an affirmative preliminary determination by Commerce that certain benefits which constitute subsidies within the meaning of § 703 of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1671b) are being provided to manufacturers, producers, or exporters in China of PC boxes. Commerce's preliminary determinations with respect to PC boxes from China and Vietnam, alleged to be sold in the United States at less than fair value, are pending. These investigations were requested in petitions filed on March 18, 2025, by CoolSeal USA Inc., Perrysburg, Ohio; Inteplast Group Corporation, Livingston, New Jersey; SeaCa Plastic Packaging, Kent, Washington; and Technology Container Corp., Desoto, Texas. For further information concerning the conduct of this phase of the investigation, hearing procedures, and rules of general application, consult the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure, part 201, subparts A and B (19 CFR part 201), and part 207, subparts A and C (19 CFR part 207). <E T="03">Participation in the investigation and public service list.</E> —Persons, including industrial users of the subject merchandise and, if the merchandise is sold at the retail level, representative consumer organizations, wishing to participate in the final phase of this investigation as parties must file an entry of appearance with the Secretary to the Commission, as provided in § 201.11 of the Commission's rules, no later than 21 days prior to the hearing date specified in this notice. A party that filed a notice of appearance during the preliminary phase of the investigation need not file an additional notice of appearance during this final phase. The Secretary will maintain a public service list containing the names and addresses of all persons, or their representatives, who are parties to the investigation. Please note the Secretary's Office will accept only electronic filings during this time. Filings must be made through the Commission's Electronic Document Information System (EDIS, <E T="03">https://edis.usitc.gov</E> ). No in-person paper-based filings or paper copies of any electronic filings will be accepted until further notice. <E T="03">Limited disclosure of business proprietary information (BPI) under an administrative protective order (APO) and BPI service list.</E> —Pursuant to § 207.7(a) of the Commission's rules, the Secretary will make BPI gathered in the final phase of this investigation available to authorized applicants under the APO issued in the investigation, provided that the application is made no later than 21 days prior to the hearing date specified in this notice. Authorized applicants must represent interested parties, as defined by 19 U.S.C. 1677(9), who are parties to the investigation. A party granted access to BPI in the preliminary phase of the investigation need not reapply for such access. A separate service list will be maintained by the Secretary for those parties authorized to receive BPI under the APO. <E T="03">Staff report.</E> —The prehearing staff report in the final phase of this investigation will be placed in the nonpublic record on October 22, 2025, and a public version will be issued thereafter, pursuant to § 207.22 of the Commission's rules. <E T="03">Hearing.</E> —The Commission will hold a hearing in connection with the final phase of this investigation beginning at 9:30 a.m. on November 5, 2025. Requests to appear at the hearing should be filed in writing with the Secretary to the Commission on or before, October 29, 2025. Any requests to appear as a witness via videoconference must be included with your request to appear. Requests to appear via videoconference must include a statement explaining why the witness cannot appear in person; the Chairman, or other person designated to conduct the investigation, may in their discretion for good cause shown, grant such a request. Requests to appear as remote witness due to illness or a positive COVID-19 test result may be submitted by 3:00 p.m. the business day prior to the hearing. Further information about participation in the hearing will be posted on the Commission's website at <E T="03">https://www.usitc.gov/calendarpad/calendar.html.</E> A nonparty who has testimony that may aid the Commission's deliberations may request permission to present a short statement at the hearing. All parties and nonparties desiring to appear at the hearing and make oral presentations should attend a prehearing conference, if deemed necessary, to be held at 9:30 a.m. on November 4, 2025. Parties shall file and serve written testimony and presentation slides in connection with their presentation at the hearing by no later than noon on November 4, 2025. Oral testimony and written materials to be submitted at the public hearing are governed by sections 201.6(b)(2), 201.13(f), and 207.24 of the Commission's rules. Parties must submit any request to present a portion of their hearing testimony <E T="03">in camera</E> no later than 7 business days prior to the date of the hearing. <E T ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 13k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━