Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished and Unfinished, From the People's Republic of China: Notice of Court Decision and Suspension of Liquidation, 7925 [E5-651]

Agencies

• DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
• International Trade Administration

[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 16, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Page 7925]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E5-651]



[[Page 7925]]                                                                                                                                                                          8068-05-1

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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-570-601]


Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished and 
Unfinished, From the People's Republic of China: Notice of Court 
Decision and Suspension of Liquidation

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: On January 21, 2005, in Luoyang Bearing Factory v. United 
States, Slip Op. 05-3, the Court of International Trade (``CIT'') 
affirmed the Department of Commerce's Final Results of Redetermination 
Pursuant to Remand (``Remand Results''), dated September 30, 2004. 
Consistent with the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 
Federal Circuit (``CAFC'') in Timken Co. v. United States, 893 F.2d 337 
(Fed. Cir. 1990) (``Timken''), the Department will continue to order 
the suspension of liquidation of the subject merchandise, where 
appropriate, until there is a ``conclusive'' decision in this case. If 
the case is not appealed, or if it is affirmed on appeal, the 
Department will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
(``Customs'') to liquidate all relevant entries from Luoyang Bearing 
Factory (``Luoyang''), Zheijiang Machinery Import & Export Corporation 
(``ZMC''), China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation 
(``CMC''), and Wafangdian Bearing Company, Limited (``Wafangdian'') and 
revise the cash deposit rates as appropriate.

EFFECTIVE DATE: February 16, 2005.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Andrew Smith, AD/CVD Operations, 
Office 1, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, 
U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., 
Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-1276.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Following publication of the TRBs XII Final Results, the Timken 
Company (``Timken''), the petitioner in this case, and the respondents, 
Luoyang Bearing, ZMC, CMC and Wafangdian (``respondents''), filed a 
lawsuit with the CIT challenging the Department's findings in Tapered 
Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished and Unfinished, From the 
People's Republic of China; Final Results of 1998-1999 Administrative 
Review, Partial Rescission of Review, and Determination Not to Revoke 
Order in Part, 66 FR 1953 (January 10, 2001) (``TRBs XII Final 
Results'').\1\ In Luoyang Bearing Corp. (Group), Zhejiang Machinery 
Import & Export Corp., China National Machinery Import & Export 
Corporation, and Wafangdian Bearing Company, Ltd. v. United States, 
Slip Op. 04-53 (CIT 2004) (``Luoyang Bearing''), the CIT instructed the 
Department to (1) further explain why the surrogate values it chose for 
wooden cases and the steel used to produce tapered roller bearings for 
Wafangdian constitute the ``best available information,'' and address 
the aberrational data referenced by the respondents; and (2) conduct 
the separate rates analysis with respect to Premier Bearing & Equipment 
Limited (``Premier'') and apply the PRC rate to all of Premier's United 
States sales if it is determined that Premier is not independent of 
government control.
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    \1\ See also Tapered Roller Bearings and Parts Thereof, Finished 
and Unfinished, From the People's Republic of China; Amended Final 
Results of 1998-1999 Administrative Review and Determination To 
Revoke Order in Part, 66 FR 11562 (February 26, 2004) (``TRBs XII 
Amended Final Results'') (the Department amended TRBs XII Final 
Results to correct for certain ministerial errors made in the 
calculation of the company-specific margin).
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    The Draft Final Results Pursuant to Remand (``Draft Results'') were 
released to parties on August 31, 2004. The Department received 
comments from interested parties on the Draft Results on September 8, 
2004, and rebuttal comments on September 13, 2004. There were no 
substantive changes made to the Remand Results as a result of comments 
received on the Draft Results. On September 30, 2004, the Department 
responded to the CIT's Order of Remand by filing the Remand Results. In 
its Remand Results, the Department revised the surrogate value used to 
value steel inputs used in the production of rollers by excluding 
aberrational data as well as data that the Department had reason to 
believe or suspect were distorted. The Department also corrected a 
clerical error in the programming used to calculate the margin for ZMC.
    As a result of the remand redetermination, the antidumping duty 
rate for Luoyang was decreased from 4.37 to 3.85 percent. The 
antidumping duty rate for ZMC was decreased from 7.37 to 0.00. The 
antidumping duty rate for CMC was decreased from 0.82 to 0.78 percent. 
The antidumping duty rate for Wafangdian and the PRC-wide rate were 
unchanged from the TRBs XII Amended Final Results. On October 20 and 
27, 2004, the CIT received comments from Timken and the respondents, 
respectively. On November 12, 2004, Timken filed rebuttal comments to 
the respondents' comments. On December 6, 2004, the Department 
responded to these comments.
    On January 21, 2005, the CIT affirmed the Department's findings in 
the Remand Results. Specifically, the CIT upheld the Department's 
explanation of what constitutes the ``best available information'' with 
regard to the surrogate values the Department chose for wooden cases 
and for the steel used to produce rollers; the Department's application 
of the Separate Rates test; the Department's decision to not revoke the 
antidumping order for ZMC; and, the Department's practice of using 
other producers' factors data to calculate Premier's normal value. See 
Luoyang Bearing Factory v. United States, Slip Op. 05-3 (CIT January 
21, 2005).
    The only revisions made to TRBs XII Final Results were revisions to 
the surrogate values and the programming language noted above. The 
revision of the surrogate values resulted in a change in both Luoyang's 
and CMC's margins. The correction of the programming error resulted in 
a change to ZMC's margin.

Suspension of Liquidation

    The CAFC, in Timken, held that the Department must publish notice 
of a decision of the CIT or the CAFC which is not ``in harmony'' with 
the Department's final determination or results. Publication of this 
notice fulfills that obligation. The CAFC also held that the Department 
must suspend liquidation of the subject merchandise until there is a 
``conclusive'' decision in the case. Therefore, pursuant to Timken, the 
Department must continue to suspend liquidation pending the expiration 
of the period to appeal the CIT's January 21, 2005, decision or, if 
that decision is appealed, pending a final decision by the CAFC. The 
Department will instruct Customs to revise cash deposit rates, as 
appropriate, and to liquidate relevant entries covering the subject 
merchandise effective February 16, 2005, in the event that the CIT's 
ruling is not appealed, or if appealed and upheld by the CAFC.

    Dated: February 8, 2005.
Joseph A. Spetrini,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. E5-651 Filed 2-15-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-S