Certain Pasta From Italy: Termination of New Shipper Antidumping Duty Administrative Review

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

International Trade Administration

(A-475-818)

Certain Pasta From Italy: Termination of New Shipper Antidumping

Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,

Department of Commerce.

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SUMMARY: On February 27, 1997, the Department of Commerce published a

notice of initiation of a new shipper administrative review of the

antidumping duty order on certain pasta from Italy. The Department is

now terminating this review.

EFFECTIVE DATE: December 19, 1997.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John Brinkmann or Sunkyu Kim, Import

Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of

Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.

20230; telephone (202) 482-5288 or 482-2613, respectively.

Applicable Statute and Regulations

Unless otherwise indicated, all citations to the Tariff Act of

1930, as amended (``the Act''), are references to the provisions

effective January 1, 1995, the effective date of the amendments made to

the Act by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act. In addition, unless

otherwise indicated, all citations to the Department of Commerce's (the

Department) regulations are to the regulations at 19 CFR Section 353,

as amended by the interim regulations published in the Federal Register

on May 11, 1995 (60 FR 25130).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On January 31, 1997, GSA S.r.l. (``GSA'') requested that the

Department conduct a new shipper review of the antidumping duty order

on certain pasta from Italy. On February 27, 1997, the Department

published in the Federal Register (62 FR 8927) a notice of initiation

of a new shipper administrative review of the antidumping duty order on

certain pasta from Italy covering GSA and the period July 1, 1996,

through January 31, 1997. On March 3, 1997, we issued the Department's

antidumping duty questionnaire 1 to GSA. GSA submitted its

response to Section A of the questionnaire on March 26, 1997. Based on

our review of the Section A response, we issued a supplemental

questionnaire on April 25, 1997. GSA submitted its response to the

supplemental Section A questionnaire along with its Sections B and C

responses on May 6, 1997. Subsequently, we issued additional

supplemental questionnaires to GSA. GSA's responses to these

questionnaires were received in June, July and September 1997.

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\1\ Section A of the questionnaire requests information

concerning a company's corporate structure and business practices,

the merchandise under review that it sells, and the sales of the

merchandise in all of its markets. Sections B and C of the

questionnaire request home market sales listings and U.S. sales

listings, respectively.

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On August 13, 1997, in accordance with 19 CFR 353.22 (h)(7), the

Department extended the time for completion of the preliminary results

of this review to no later than December 17, 1997, because the

Department determined that this case is extraordinarily complicated (62

FR 44107 (August 19, 1997)).

Termination of Review

The respondent, GSA, is a trading company in Italy that purchased

the merchandise under review from an unaffiliated producer and resold

to customers in the home market and the United States during the POR.

Based on our analysis of the data submitted to date by GSA, we conclude

that the producer of GSA's pasta, which is unaffiliated with GSA, knew

or had reason to know that its merchandise was destined for export to

the United States at the time it sold the merchandise to GSA.

Specifically, GSA stated that the subject pasta was packaged and

labeled at the time of production by the producer. A copy of the

packaging, provided in GSA's July 18, 1997, submission, which is

identical in all material respects to the packaging for the pasta

actually purchased and shipped to the United States by GSA, contains

information indicating that the product is destined for the United

States. Specifically, the packaging contains the address of the U.S.

importer. Additionally, certain proprietary information on the record

concerning the nature of the relationship between the parties involved

in this review demonstrate that the producer knew or had reason to know

that the pasta it sold to GSA was destined for the United States. For a

further discussion, see Memorandum to Richard Moreland, Acting Deputy

[[Page 66603]]

Assistant Secretary, Import Administration, dated November 23, 1997.

In determining the basis for export price, we examine the price at

which the first party in the chain of distribution which has knowledge

of the U.S. destination of the merchandise sells the subject

merchandise, either directly to a U.S. purchaser or to an intermediary

such as a trading company. The party making such a sale, with knowledge

of destination, is the appropriate party to be reviewed. See Fresh

Garlic From the People's Republic of China: Preliminary Results of

Antidumping Duty Administrative Review and Partial Termination of

Administrative Review 61 FR 68229 (December 27, 1996).

In this case, GSA's unaffiliated producer knew or had reason to

know that its merchandise was destined for export to the United States

at the time it sold the merchandise to GSA. Therefore, we determine

that it is inappropriate to review GSA's sales transactions. Moreover,

no request was made to review the producer's sales. Accordingly, we are

terminating the current new shipper review with respect to GSA.

This notice is published pursuant to 19 CFR 353.22(h).

Dated: December 12, 1997.

Robert S. LaRussa,

Assistant Secretary, For Import Administration.

[FR Doc. 97-33237 Filed 12-18-97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P