Antifriction Bearings (Other than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof from Romania; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

[A-485-801]

Antifriction Bearings (Other than Tapered Roller Bearings) and

Parts Thereof from Romania; Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty

Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

ACTION: Notice of Preliminary Results of Antidumping Duty

Administrative Review.

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SUMMARY: In response to a request by the petitioner, The Torrington

Company, the Department of Commerce (the Department) is conducting an

administrative review of the antidumping duty order on antifriction

bearings (other than tapered roller bearings) and parts thereof (AFBs),

from Romania. The review covers shipments of the subject merchandise to

the United States during the period May 1, 1993, through April 30,

1994.

We have preliminarily determined that sales have not been made

below the foreign market value (FMV). Interested parties are invited to

comment on these preliminary results.

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 29, 1996.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Riggle or Michael Rill, Office

of Antidumping Compliance, Import Administration, International Trade

Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and

Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482-

4733.

[[Page 60680]]

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On May 15, 1989, the Department published in the Federal Register

(54 FR 19109) the antidumping duty order on ball bearings and parts

thereof from Romania. On June 22, 1994 (59 FR 32180), we published the

notice of initiation of this antidumping duty administrative review.

The Department is conducting this administrative review in accordance

with section 751 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act).

Applicable Statute and Regulations

Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Act and to the

Department's regulations are in reference to the provisions as they

existed on December 31, 1994.

Scope of this Review

Imports covered by this review are shipments of AFBs from Romania.

This merchandise is currently classifiable under Harmonized Tariff

Schedule (HTS) item numbers 3926.90.45, 4016.93.00, 4016.93.10,

4016.93.50, 6909.19.5010, 8431.20.00, 8431.39.010, 8482.10.10,

8482.10.50, 8482.80.00, 8482.91.00, 8482.99.05, 8482.99.10, 8482.99.35,

8482.99.6590, 8482.99.70, 8483.20.40, 8483.20.80, 8483.50.8040,

8483.50.90, 8483.90.20, 8483.90.30, 8483.90.70, 8708.50.50, 8708.60.50,

8708.60.80, 8708.70.6060, 8708.70.8050, 8708.93.30, 8708.93.5000,

8708.93.6000, 8708.93.75, 8708.99.06, 8708.99.31, 8708.99.4960,

8708.99.50, 8708.99.5800, 8708.99.8080, 8803.10.00, 8803.20.00,

8803.30.00, 8803.90.30, 8803.90.90.

The size or precision grade of a bearing does not influence whether

the bearing is covered by the order. For a further discussion on the

scope of the order being reviewed, including recent scope decisions,

see Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and

Parts Thereof from France, et al.; Final Results of Antidumping Duty

Administrative Reviews, and Revocation in Part of Antidumping Duty

Orders, 60 FR 10900 (February 28, 1995). The HTS item numbers are

provided for convenience and Customs purposes. The written description

of the scope of this order remains dispositive.

This review covers one company, Tehnoimportexport S.A. (TIE), and

the period May 1, 1993, through April 30, 1994. Only TIE made shipments

of the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of

review. S.C. Rulmenti Grei S.A. Ploiesti (Ploiesti) and S.C. Rulmentul

S.A. Brasov (Brasov) produced the merchandise sold by TIE to the United

States, but stated that they did not ship AFBs directly to the United

States.

Verification

As provided in section 776(b) of the Act, we verified information

provided by TIE by using standard verification procedures, including

onsite inspection of a manufacturer's facility, the examination of

relevant sales and financial records and selection of original

documents containing relevant information. Our verification results are

outlined in the public versions of the verification reports.

Separate Rates

It is the Department's standard policy to assign all exporters of

merchandise subject to review in non-market-economy (NME) countries a

single rate, unless an exporter can demonstrate an absence of

government control, both in law and in fact, with respect to exports.

To establish whether a company is sufficiently independent to be

entitled to a separate rate, the Department analyzes each exporting

entity under the test established in the Final Determination of Sales

at Less Than Fair Value: Sparklers from the People's Republic of China

(56 FR 20588, May 6, 1991) (Sparklers), as amplified by the Final

Determination of Sales at Less Than Fair Value: Silicon Carbide from

the People's Republic of China (59 FR 22585, May 2, 1994) (Silicon

Carbide). Evidence supporting, though not requiring, a finding of de

jure absence of government control includes: (1) an absence of

restrictive stipulations associated with an individual exporter's

business and export licenses; (2) any legislative enactments

decentralizing control of companies; and (3) any other formal measures

by the government decentralizing control of companies. De facto absence

of government control with respect to exports is based on four

criteria: (1) whether the export prices are set by or subject to the

approval of a government authority; (2) whether each exporter retains

the proceeds from its sales and makes independent decisions regarding

the disposition of profits or financing of losses; (3) whether each

exporter has autonomy in making decisions regarding the selection of

management; and (4) whether each exporter has the authority to

negotiate and sign contracts.

TIE is the only company covered by this review with shipments of

the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of

review. Therefore, TIE is the only firm for which we made a

determination as to its entitlement to a separate rate. Although some

evidence on the record may support a finding of de jure absence of

government control, other evidence demonstrates that TIE does not have

autonomy from the government in making decisions regarding the

selection of its management. This fact suggests that export prices are

subject to the approval of a government authority, and that TIE is not

free from government control when it negotiates and signs contracts.

Accordingly, we determined that there is de facto government control

with respect to TIE's exports according to the criteria identified in

Sparklers and Silicon Carbide. For further discussion of the

Department's preliminary determination that TIE is not entitled to a

separate rate, see Decision Memorandum to the Director, Office of

Antidumping Compliance: Assignment of a separate rate for

Tehnoimportexport, S.A., in the 1993-94 administrative review of the

antidumping duty order on Antifriction Bearings (Other than Tapered

Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof from Romania (January 31, 1996).

United States Price

Record evidence indicates that TIE was the only Romanian exporter

of the subject merchandise to the United States during the period of

review. For sales made by TIE, the Department used purchase price, in

accordance with section 772(b) of the Act, in calculating U.S. price.

We calculated purchase price based on the packed F.O.B. price to

unrelated purchasers in the United States. We made deductions, where

appropriate, for foreign inland freight, brokerage and handling, air

freight and bank charges. To value foreign inland freight and brokerage

and handling, we used surrogate information from Turkey for reasons

explained in the ``Foreign Market Value'' section of this notice. We

deducted the actual expenses for air freight and bank charges because

these expenses were incurred in U.S. dollars.

Foreign Market Value

For merchandise exported from an NME country, section 773(c)(1) of

the Act provides that the Department shall determine FMV using a

factors of production methodology if available information does not

permit the calculation of FMV using home market prices, third country

prices, or constructed value (CV) under section 773(a) of the Act.

In every case conducted by the Department involving Romania,

Romania has been treated as an NME country. None of the parties to this

proceeding has contested such treatment in this review, and thus, in

accordance with section 771(18)(C) of

[[Page 60681]]

the Act, we continue to treat Romania as an NME country.

Accordingly, in accordance with section 773(c) of the Act and

section 353.52 of the Department's regulations, we calculated FMV on

the basis of the value of TIE's factors of production and other

required expenses, which included hours of labor required, quantities

of raw materials employed, selling, general and administrative

expenses, overhead, profit and packing, as reported by TIE and verified

by the Department. We valued the factors of production using prices or

costs in one or more surrogate market economy countries. Specifically,

we first determined that Morocco, Ecuador, Colombia, Algeria, Poland

and Turkey are each at a level of economic development comparable to

Romania in terms of per capita gross national product (GNP), the growth

rate in per capita GNP, and the national distribution of labor. Of

these potential surrogate countries, we found that both Poland and

Turkey are significant producers of bearings, but that Poland has a

larger bearings industry than Turkey. Therefore, we selected Poland as

the primary surrogate country for these preliminary results. Where we

were unable to locate publicly available published information to

establish surrogate values from Poland, we used Turkey as a secondary

surrogate country. For further discussion of our selection of these

surrogate countries, see Memorandum to the File: Selection of Surrogate

Country in the 1993-94 Administrative Review of the Antidumping Duty

Order on Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and

Parts Thereof from Romania (December 5, 1995).

For purposes of calculating FMV, we valued the Romanian factors of

production as follows, in accordance with section 773(c)(1) of the Act:

To value domestically-sourced direct materials used in the

production of AFBs, we used the European currency unit (ECU) per metric

ton value of imports into Poland from the countries of the European

Community for the period May 1993 through April 1994, obtained from the

EUROSTAT, Monthly EC External Trade (EUROSTAT). We made adjustments to

include freight costs incurred between the domestic raw materials

suppliers and the AFB factories. Some materials used to produce AFBs

were imported into Romania from market-economy countries, and, to value

those materials, we used the actual import price. We also made an

adjustment for steel scrap which was sold. Scrap was valued using

information obtained from EUROSTAT for Poland.

For direct labor, we used the average monthly wages for

the metal products manufacturing industry reported in the September

1994 issue of the Statistical Bulletin, published by the Central

Statistical Office in Warsaw. To determine the number of hours worked

each month, we used information published by the International Labour

Office in the Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1994.

For factory overhead, we used information from a publicly

available summarized version for factory overhead reported for the

1993-94 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on welded

carbon steel pipe and tube from Turkey (pipe and tube from Turkey),

because we had no publicly available published information from Poland

for this expense. Factory overhead was reported as a percentage of

total cost of manufacture.

For selling, general, and administrative expenses, we used

the statutory minimum of 10 percent found in section 773(e)(1)(B)

pursuant to our authority in section 773(e)(1), because we had no

publicly available published surrogate country information for these

expenses.

For profit, we used information from a publicly available

summarized version for profit reported for pipe and tube from Turkey,

because we had no publicly available published information from Poland

for this expense.

To value domestically-sourced packing materials, we used

the ECU per metric ton value of imports into Poland from the countries

of the European Community as published in the EUROSTAT. We adjusted

these values to include freight costs incurred between the domestic

packing materials suppliers and the AFB factories. Some materials used

to pack AFBs were imported into Romania from market-economy countries,

and, to value those materials, we used the actual import price.

To value foreign inland freight, we used information from

a publicly available summarized version for foreign inland freight

reported for pipe and tube from Turkey, because we had no publicly

available published information from Poland for this expense.

Currency Conversion

We made currency conversions in accordance with 19 CFR 353.60(a).

Currency conversions were made at the rates certified by the Federal

Reserve Bank for the surrogate countries, or, where certified Federal

Reserve Bank rates were not available, average monthly exchange rates

published by the International Monetary Fund in International Financial

Statistics.

Preliminary Results of the Review

As a result of our review, we preliminarily determine that the

following margin exists:

Manufacturer/Exporter...........................Tehnoimportexport, S.A.

Time Period..............................................5/1/93-4/30/94

Margin (percent)...................................................0.00

Parties to this proceeding may request disclosure within 5 days of

the date of publication of this notice. Any interested party may

request a hearing within 10 days of publication. Any hearing, if

requested, will be held 44 days after the publication of this notice,

or the first workday thereafter. Interested parties may submit case

briefs within 30 days of the date of publication of this notice.

Rebuttal briefs, which must be limited to issues raised in the case

briefs, may be filed not later than 37 days after the date of

publication. See section 353.38 of the Department's regulations. The

Department will publish a notice of final results of this

administrative review, which will include the results of its analysis

of issues raised in any such comments.

The Department shall determine, and the Customs Service shall

assess, antidumping duties on all appropriate entries. The Department

will issue appraisement instructions directly to the Customs Service.

Furthermore, the following deposit requirements will be effective

upon publication of the final results of this administrative review for

all shipments of AFBs from Romania entered, or withdrawn from

warehouse, for consumption on or after the publication date, as

provided for by section 751(a)(1) of the Act: (1) the cash deposit rate

for TIE, and for all other Romanian exporters, will be the rate

established in the final results of this review; and (2) for non-

Romanian exporters of subject merchandise from Romania, the cash

deposit rate will be the rate applicable to the Romanian supplier of

that exporter. These deposit requirements, when imposed, shall remain

in effect until publication of the final results of the next

administrative review.

Notification of Interested Parties

This notice serves as a preliminary reminder to importers of their

responsibility under section 353.26 of the Department's regulations to

file a certificate regarding the reimbursement of antidumping duties

prior to

[[Page 60682]]

liquidation of the relevant entries during this review period. Failure

to comply with this requirement could result in the Secretary's

presumption that reimbursement of antidumping duties occurred and the

subsequent assessment of double antidumping duties.

This administrative review and notice are in accordance with

section 751(a)(1) of the Act and section 353.22 of the Department's

regulations.

Dated: November 20, 1996.

Robert S. LaRussa,

Acting Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.

[FR Doc. 96-30478 Filed 11-27-96; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P