Certain Aluminum Foil From Turkey: Preliminary Results of Countervailing Duty Administrative Review

AGENCY:

Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY:

The U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) preliminarily determines that countervailable subsidies were provided to producers and exporters of certain aluminum foil (aluminum foil) from the Republic of Turkey (Turkey) during the period of review (POR), March 5, 2021, through December 31, 2021. Interested parties are invited to comment on these preliminary results.

DATES:

Applicable December 7, 2023.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Adam Simons, AD/CVD Operations, Office IX, Enforcement and Compliance, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230; telephone: (202) 482–6172.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On November 12, 2021, Commerce published in the Federal Register a countervailing duty order on aluminum foil from Turkey. On November 1, 2022, Commerce published the notice of the opportunity to request a review of the Order. On January 3, 2023, Commerce published the notice of the initiation of this administrative review in the Federal Register . For a complete description of the events that followed the initiation of this review, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum. A list of topics included in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum is provided as the appendix to this notice. The Preliminary Decision Memorandum is a public document and is on file electronically via Enforcement and Compliance's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System (ACCESS). ACCESS is available to registered users at https://access.trade.gov. In addition, a complete version of the Preliminary Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.

Scope of the Order

The product covered by the Order is aluminum foil from Turkey. For a complete description of the scope of the Order, see the Preliminary Decision Memorandum.

Methodology

Commerce is conducting this administrative review in accordance with section 701 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act). For each of the subsidy programs found countervailable, Commerce preliminarily determines that there is a subsidy, i.e., a financial contribution by an “authority” that gives rise to a benefit to the recipient, and that the subsidy is specific.

Companies Not Selected for Individual Examination

The Act and Commerce's regulations do not directly address the subsidy rate to be applied to companies not selected for individual examination where Commerce limits its examination in an administrative review pursuant to section 777A(e)(2) of the Act. However, Commerce normally determines the rates for non-selected companies in reviews in a manner that is consistent with section 705(c)(5) of the Act, which provides instructions for calculating the all-others rate in an investigation. Section 777A(e)(2) of the Act provides that “the individual countervailable subsidy rates determined under subparagraph (A) shall be used to determine the all-others rate under section 705(c)(5) {of the Act}.” Section 705(c)(5)(A) of the Act states that for companies not investigated, in general, we will determine an all-others rate by weight averaging the countervailable subsidy rates established for each of the companies individually investigated, excluding zero and de minimis rates or any rates based solely on the facts available.

Accordingly, to determine the rate for companies not selected for individual examination, Commerce's practice is to weight average the net subsidy rates for the selected mandatory respondents, excluding rates that are zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts available. We selected ASAS Aluminyum Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. for review as a mandatory respondent and preliminary determine that it received countervailable subsidies at a de minimis rate. Therefore, we preliminarily determine that the other selected mandatory respondent, Assan Aluminyum Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S. (Assan), is the sole mandatory respondent which received countervailable subsidies that are above de minimis and are not based entirely on facts available. Therefore, we are preliminarily applying the net subsidy rate calculated for Assan to the non-selected companies.

Preliminary Results of Review

Commerce preliminarily determines the following net countervailable subsidy rates for the POR:

Disclosure and Public Comment

We intend to disclose the calculations performed for these preliminary results to interested parties within five days after the date of publication of this notice. Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.309(c), interested parties may submit case briefs to Commerce no later than seven days after the date of the last verification report issued in this administrative review. Rebuttal briefs, limited to issues raised in the case briefs, may be filed not later than five days after the date for filing case briefs. Interested parties who submit case briefs or rebuttal briefs in this proceeding must submit: (1) a table of contents listing each issue; and (2) a table of authorities. All briefs must be filed electronically using ACCESS. An electronically filed document must be received successfully in its entirety in ACCESS by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on the established deadline. As provided under 19 CFR 351.309(c)(2) and (d)(2), in prior proceedings we have encouraged interested parties to provide an executive summary of their brief that should be limited to five pages total, including footnotes. In this review, we instead request that interested parties provide at the beginning of their briefs a public, executive summary for each issue raised in their briefs.” Further, we request that interested parties limit their executive summary of each issue to no more than 450 words, not including citations. We intend to use the executive summaries as the basis of the comment summaries included in the issues and decision memorandum that will accompany the final results in this administrative review. We request that interested parties include footnotes for relevant citations in the executive summary of each issue. Note that Commerce has amended certain of its requirements pertaining to the service of documents in 19 CFR 351.303(f).

Pursuant to 19 CFR 351.310(c), interested parties who wish to request a hearing must submit a written request to the Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Compliance, filed electronically via ACCESS. Requests should contain: (1) the party's name, address, and telephone number; (2) the number of participants; and (3) a list of issues to be discussed. Issues raised in the hearing will be limited to those raised in the respective case briefs. If a request for a hearing is made, Commerce will inform parties of the scheduled date for the hearing. An electronically filed hearing request must be received successfully in its entirety by Commerce's electronic records system, ACCESS, by 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time within 30 days after the date of publication of this notice.

Assessment Rates

Consistent with section 751(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.212(b)(2), upon issuance of the final results, Commerce will determine, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) shall assess, countervailing duties on all appropriate entries covered by this review. We intend to issue instructions to CBP no earlier than 35 days after the date of publication of the final results of this review in the Federal Register . If a timely summons is filed at the U.S. Court of International Trade, the assessment instructions will direct CBP not to liquidate relevant entries until the time for parties to file a request for a statutory injunction has expired ( i.e., within 90 days of publication).

Cash Deposit Requirements

In accordance with section 751(a)(2)(C) of the Act, Commerce also intends to instruct CBP to collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties in the amounts shown for each of the companies listed above with regard to shipments of subject merchandise entered, or withdrawn from warehouse, for consumption on or after the date of publication of the final results of this review. For all non-reviewed firms, CBP will continue to collect cash deposits of estimated countervailing duties at the all-others rate or the most recent company-specific rate applicable to the company, as appropriate. These cash deposit requirements, when imposed, shall remain in effect until further notice.

Verification

On April 13, 2023, the Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group and its individual members requested that Commerce conduct verification of the factual information submitted by the respondents in this administrative review. Accordingly, as provided in section 782(i)(3) of the Act, Commerce intends to verify certain of the information relied upon for its final results.

Notification to Interested Parties

We are issuing and publishing these preliminary results in accordance with sections 751(a)(1) and 777(i)(1) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.221(b)(4).

Appendix

List of Topics Discussed in the Preliminary Decision Memorandum

I. Summary

II. Background

III. Period of Review

IV. Scope of the Order

V. Subsidies Valuation

VI. Benchmarks and Interest Rates

VII. Analysis of Programs

VIII. Recommendation