Initiation of Administrative Review of the Antidumping Duty Order on Wooden Bedroom Furniture From the People's Republic of China

AGENCY:

Import Administration, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Commerce (the Department) received requests to conduct an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the People's Republic of China (PRC). In addition, the Department received a request to defer the administrative review of one company for one year. The anniversary month of this order is January. In accordance with the Department's regulations, we are initiating this administrative review.

DATES:

Effective Date: February 28, 2011.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Jeffrey Pedersen, or Rebecca Pandolph, AD/CVD Operations, Office 4, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230, telephone: (202) 482-2769 and (202) 482-3627, respectively.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Department received timely requests, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(b), for an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC covering multiple entities. The Department is now initiating an administrative review of the order covering those entities.

Notice of No Exports, Sales, or Entries

Under 19 CFR 351.213(d)(3), the Department may rescind a review where there are no exports, sales, or entries of subject merchandise during the respective period of review (POR). If a producer or exporter named in this notice of initiation had no exports, sales, or entries during the POR, it must notify the Department within 60 days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register. The Department will consider rescinding the review only if the producer or exporter, as appropriate, submits a properly filed and timely statement certifying that it had no exports, sales, or entries of subject merchandise during the POR. All submissions must be made in accordance with 19 CFR 351.303 and are subject to verification in accordance with section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). Six copies of the submission should be submitted to the Assistant Secretary for Import Administration, International Trade Administration, Room 1870, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230. Further, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.303(f)(3)(ii), a copy of each request must be served on every party on the Department's service list.

Respondent Selection

Section 777A(c)(1) of the Act directs the Department to calculate individual dumping margins for each known exporter and producer of the subject merchandise. Where it is not practicable to examine all known producers/exporters of subject merchandise, section 777A(c)(2)(B) of the Act permits the Department to examine exporters and producers accounting for the largest volume of the subject merchandise from the exporting country that can be reasonably examined. Due to the large number of firms for which an administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture has been requested, and the Department's experience regarding the resulting administrative burden of reviewing each company for which a request has been made, the Department is considering exercising its authority to limit the number of respondents selected for review in accordance with the Act.

In the event that the Department limits the number of respondents for individual examination in the administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture, the Department intends to select respondents based on volume data contained in responses to Q&V questionnaires. Further, the Department intends to limit the number of Q&V questionnaires issued in the review based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data for U.S. imports classified under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) headings identified in the scope of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC. Since the units used to measure import quantities are not consistent across the HTSUS headings identified in the scope of the order on wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC, the Department will limit the number of Q&V questionnaires issued based on the import values in CBP data which will serve as a proxy for import quantities. Parties subject to the review to which the Department does not send a Q&V questionnaire may file a response to the Q&V questionnaire by the applicable deadline if they desire to be included in the pool of companies from which the Department will select mandatory respondents. Parties will be given the opportunity to comment on the CBP data used by the Department to limit the number of Q&V questionnaires issued. We intend to release the CBP data under administrative protective order (APO) to all parties having an APO within seven days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register. The Department invites comments regarding CBP data and respondent selection within five days of placement of the CBP data on the record.

In this case, the Department has decided to send Q&V questionnaires to the 21 companies for which reviews were requested with the largest total values of subject merchandise imported into the United States during the POR according to CBP data. The Department will issue the Q&V questionnaire the day after this notice is signed. In addition, the Q&V questionnaire will be available on the Department's Web site at http://trade.gov/ia/ on the date this notice is signed. The responses to the Q&V questionnaire must be received by the Department by March 15, 2011. Please be advised that due to the time constraints imposed by the statutory and regulatory deadlines for antidumping duty administrative reviews, the Department does not intend to grant any extensions for the submission of responses to the Q&V questionnaire.

Separate Rates

In proceedings involving non-market economy (NME) countries, the Department begins with a rebuttable presumption that all companies within the country are subject to government control and, thus, should be assigned a single antidumping duty deposit rate. It is the Department's policy to assign all exporters of merchandise subject to an administrative review in an NME country this single rate unless an exporter can demonstrate that it is sufficiently independent so as to be entitled to a separate rate.

To establish whether a firm is sufficiently independent from government control of its export activities to be entitled to a separate rate, the Department analyzes each entity exporting the subject merchandise under a test arising from the Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Sparklers From the People's Republic of China, 56 FR 20588 (May 6, 1991), as amplified by Final Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Silicon Carbide From the People's Republic of China, 59 FR 22585 (May 2, 1994). In accordance with the separate-rates test, the Department assigns separate rates to companies in NME cases only if respondents can demonstrate the absence of both de jure and de facto government control over export activities.

All firms listed below that wish to qualify for separate-rate status in this administrative review must complete, as appropriate, either a separate-rate certification or application, as described below. In order to demonstrate separate-rate eligibility, the Department requires entities for which a review was requested and that were assigned a separate rate in the most recent segment of this proceeding in which they participated, to certify that they continue to meet the test for obtaining a separate rate through the Separate Rate Certification form which will be available on the Department's Web site at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/nme/nme-sep-rate.html on the date of publication of this Federal Register. In responding to the certification, please follow the “Instructions for Filing the Certification” in the Separate Rate Certification. Separate Rate Certifications are due to the Department no later than 60 days after publication of this Federal Register notice. The deadline and requirement for submitting a Certification applies equally to NME-owned firms, wholly foreign-owned firms, and foreign sellers who purchase and export subject merchandise to the United States.

Entities that currently do not have a separate rate from a completed segment of the proceeding should timely file a Separate Rate Application to demonstrate eligibility for a separate rate in this proceeding. In addition, companies that received a separate rate in a completed segment of the proceeding that have subsequently made changes, including, but not limited to, changes to corporate structure, acquisitions of new companies or facilities, or changes to their official company name, should timely file a Separate Rate Application to demonstrate eligibility for a separate rate in this proceeding. The Separate Rate Application will be available on the Department's Web site at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/nme/nme-sep-rate.html on the date of publication of this Federal Register notice. In responding to the Separate Rate Application, refer to the instructions contained in the application. Separate Rate Applications are due to the Department no later than 60 calendar days of publication of this Federal Register notice. The deadline and requirement for submitting a Separate Rate Application applies equally to NME-owned firms, wholly foreign-owned firms, and foreign sellers that purchase and export subject merchandise to the United States.

For exporters and producers who submit a separate-rate application or certification and subsequently are selected as mandatory respondents, these exporters and producers will no longer be eligible for separate-rate status unless they respond to all parts of the questionnaire as mandatory respondents.

Notification

This notice constitutes public notification to all firms for which an administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture has been requested and that are seeking separate rate status in that review, that they must submit a timely Separate Rate Application or Certification (as appropriate) as described above, in order to receive consideration for separate-rate status. Firms to which the Department issues a Q&V questionnaire must submit a timely and complete response to the Q&V questionnaire, in addition to a timely and complete Separate Rate Application or Certification in order to receive consideration for separate-rate status. In other words, the Department will not give consideration to any timely Separate Rate Certification or Application made by parties to whom the Department issued a Q&V questionnaire but who failed to respond in a timely manner to the Q&V questionnaire. Exporters subject to the review to which the Department does not send a Q&V questionnaire may receive consideration for separate-rate status if they file a timely Separate Rate Application or a timely Separate Rate Certification without filing a response to the Q&V questionnaire. All information submitted by respondents in this administrative review is subject to verification. As noted above, the Separate Rate Certification, the Separate Rate Application, and the Q&V questionnaire will be available on the Department's Web site on the date of publication of this notice in the Federal Register.

Request To Defer Review

In their request to be reviewed, Dorbest Limited, Rui Feng Woodwork (Dongguan) Co., Ltd., and Rui Feng Lumber Development (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. (collectively Dorbest) requested that the Department defer the initiation of the review of Dorbest for one year, pursuant to 19 CFR 351.213(c). Dorbest contends that a one year deferral will result in an efficient use of Departmental resources because it will allow parties to learn whether Dorbest has been excluded from the furniture order based on the final results of redetermination currently before the Court of International Trade in which the Department recalculated a de minimis rate for Dorbest for the investigation in this proceeding.

The Department's regulations provide that the Department may defer the initiation of an antidumping duty administrative review, in whole or in part, for one year if: (1) The request for review was accompanied by a request to defer the review; and (2) neither the exporter or producer for which the deferral is requested, the importer of subject merchandise from that exporter or producer, or a domestic interested party objected to the deferral. No parties have objected to the deferral of this review with respect to Dorbest.

The preamble to the Department's regulations states that the Department established the provision for deferring the initiation of an administrative review, in part, to reduce burdens on the Department. We believe that deferring the instant review of Dorbest is not likely to save Departmental resources because it is likely that, in this review, as in every prior administrative review of this order, the Department will find it necessary to limit the number of respondents examined. Accordingly, even if the Department defers Dorbest's administrative review, it will likely still review the same number of respondents, i.e., the maximum number of respondents which its resources will permit.

Finally, we disagree with Dorbest's argument that deferral is appropriate because the results of ongoing litigation from the investigation may make it unnecessary to conduct a review. Resting a decision to defer the review on the possible result of the litigation from the investigation is inappropriate because the result of this litigation, including any appeals, is uncertain and it could take a significant period of time to resolve. In this regard, the Department notes that the redetermination was recently remanded back to the Department for further consideration. See Dorbest Ltd. v. United States, Slip. Op. 11-14 (CIT Consol. No. 05-00003 February 9, 2011). Furthermore, the Department has previously rejected this argument as a basis for deferring the review. For all these reasons, we have not deferred the instant review with respect to Dorbest.

Initiation of Review:

In accordance with 19 CFR 351.221(c)(1)(i), we are initiating an administrative review of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC with respect to the following companies. We intend to issue the final results of this review not later than January 31, 2012.

During any administrative review covering all or part of a period falling between the first and second or third and fourth anniversary of the publication of an antidumping duty order under 19 CFR 351.211 or a determination under 19 CFR 351.218(f)(4) to continue an order or suspended investigation (after sunset review), the Secretary, if requested by a domestic interested party within 30 days of the date of publication of the notice of initiation of the review, will determine, consistent with FAG Italia v. United States, 291 F.3d 806 (Fed. Cir. 2002), as appropriate, whether antidumping duties have been absorbed by an exporter or producer subject to the review if the subject merchandise is sold in the United States through an importer that is affiliated with such exporter or producer. The request must include the name(s) of the exporter or producer for which the inquiry is requested.

Interested parties must submit applications for disclosure under administrative protective orders in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. On January 22, 2008, the Department published Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Proceedings: Documents Submission Procedures; APO Procedures, 73 FR 3634 (January 22, 2008). Those procedures apply to the administrative review of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC being initiated through this notice. Parties that wish to participate in the antidumping duty administrative review of wooden bedroom furniture from the PRC should ensure that they meet the requirements in these procedures (e.g., the filing of separate letters of appearance as discussed in 19 CFR 351.103(d)).

This initiation and notice are in accordance with section 751(a) of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1675(a)), and 19 CFR 351.221(c)(1)(i).