Notice of Court Decision: Certain Hot Rolled Lead and Bismuth Carbon Steel Products From the United Kingdom

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

[C-412-811]

Notice of Court Decision: Certain Hot Rolled Lead and Bismuth

Carbon Steel Products From the United Kingdom

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

EFFECTIVE DATE: June 22, 1994.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Annika L. O'Hara or Julie Anne Osgood,

Office of Countervailing Investigations, Import Administration, U.S.

Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.,

Washington, DC 20230; telephone (202) 482-4198 and (202) 482-0167,

respectively.

SUMMARY: On June 7, 1994, the United States Court of International

Trade (``CIT'') overturned the determination by the Department of

Commerce (``the Department'') that United Engineering Steels, Ltd.

(``UES'') was being subsidized by reason of subsidies previously

bestowed on a government-owned company which sold one of its productive

units to UES in an arm's-length transaction.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In its Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty

Determination: Certain Hot Rolled Lead and Bismuth Carbon Steel

Products From the United Kingdom, 58 FR 6237 (January 27, 1993), the

Department determined that subsidies previously bestowed on the British

Steel Corporation (``BSC'') passed through, in part, to UES, a joint-

venture company, when UES purchased one of BSC's productive units in an

arm's-length transaction. The Department's determination was

challenged. The Department subsequently requested, and was granted, a

remand in order to reconsider its final determination. On remand, the

Department adopted its reasoning in Final Affirmative Countervailing

Duty Determination: Certain Steel Products From the United Kingdom, 58

FR 37393 (July 9, 1993), in which it determined that part of the price

UES paid for the productive unit purchased from BSC constituted payment

for prior subsidies. On June 7, 1994, in Inland Steel Bar Co. v. United

States, (``Inland Steel''), Slip Op. 94-93, the CIT overturned the

Department's determination that previously bestowed subsidies are

passed through to a successor company sold in an arm's-length

transaction.

In its decision in Timken Co. v. United States, 893 F.2d 337 (Fed.

Cir. 1990), the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

held that, pursuant to 19 U.S.C. section 1516a(e), the Department must

publish a notice of a court decision which is not ``in harmony'' with a

Department determination, and must suspend liquidation of entries

pending a ``conclusive'' court decision. The CIT's decision in Inland

Steel on June 7, 1994, constitutes a decision not in harmony with the

Department's final affirmative determination. Publication of this

notice fulfills the Timken requirement.

Accordingly, the Department will continue to suspend liquidation

pending the expiration of the period of appeal, or, if appealed, upon a

``conclusive'' court decision. Absent an appeal, or, if appealed, upon

a ``conclusive'' court decision affirming the CIT's opinion, the

countervailing duty order will be revoked effective June 17, 1994.

Dated: June 16, 1994.

Paul L. Joffe,

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

[FR Doc. 94-15179 Filed 6-21-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P