Certain Frozen Warmwater Shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand: Notice of Initiation of Administrative Reviews

AGENCY:

Import Administration, International Trade Administration, Department of Commerce.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Commerce (“Department”) received timely requests to conduct administrative reviews of the antidumping duty orders on certain frozen warmwater shrimp (“shrimp”) from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand. The anniversary month of these orders is February. In accordance with 19 CFR 351.221, we are initiating these administrative reviews.

EFFECTIVE DATE:

April 7, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Kate Johnson at (202) 482-4929 (Brazil), David Goldberger at (202) 482-4136 (Ecuador), Elizabeth Eastwood at (202) 482-3874 (India), and Irina Itkin at (202) 482-0656 (Thailand), AD/CVD Operations, Office 2, Import Administration, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

The Department received timely requests from the petitioner¹, the Louisiana Shrimp Association (“LSA”), and certain individual companies, in accordance with 19 CFR 351.213(b), during the anniversary month of February 2008, for administrative reviews of the antidumping duty orders on shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India, and Thailand. The Department is now initiating administrative reviews of these orders covering 43 companies for Brazil, 81 companies for Ecuador, 336 companies for India, and 165 companies for Thailand, as noted in the “Initiation of Reviews” section of this notice.

In accordance with the Department's recent statement in its notice of opportunity to request administrative reviews (see Antidumping or Countervailing Duty Order, Finding, or Suspended Investigation; Opportunity To Request Administrative Review, 73 FR 6477, 6478 (February 4, 2008)), we have not initiated administrative reviews with respect to those companies which the Department was unable to locate in prior segments and for which no new information as to the party's location was provided by the requestor. We have also not initiated administrative reviews with respect to those companies we previously determined to be duplicates or to no longer exist. See “Initiation of Reviews,” “Incomplete Requests for Review,” and “Requests for Review of Non-Existent Companies” sections of this notice for country-specific lists of the companies for which we did not initiate an administrative review.

Initiation of Reviews

In accordance with section 751(a)(1) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (“the Act”), we are initiating administrative reviews of the antidumping duty orders on shrimp from Brazil, Ecuador, India and Thailand. We intend to issue the final results of these reviews by February 28, 2009.

Incomplete Requests for Review

We have not initiated administrative reviews with respect to the companies listed below which the Department was unable to locate in prior segments and for which no new information as to the party's location was provided by the requestor. See, e.g., 2006-2007 Administrative Review Initiation Notice, 72 FR at 17110.

Requests for Review of Non-Existent Companies

We have not initiated administrative reviews with respect to the companies listed below for India, which the Department determined in the 2006-2007 administrative review no longer exist. See Indian Shrimp Rescission FR, 73 FR at 6127.

Notice of No Sales

The companies on which we are initiating this review should notify the Department within 30 days of publication of this notice in the Federal Register if they had no shipments, entries, or sales of the merchandise under consideration during the POR.

Selection of Respondents

Section 777A(c)(1) of the Act directs the Department to calculate individual dumping margins for each known exporter and producer of the subject merchandise. Where it is not practicable to examine all known producers/exporters of subject merchandise because of the large number of such companies, section 777A(c)(2) of the Act permits the Department to limit its examination to either: (1) a sample of exporters, producers or types of products that is statistically valid based on the information available at the time of selection; or (2) exporters and producers accounting for the largest volume of subject merchandise from the exporting country that can be reasonably examined. Due to the large number of firms requested for these administrative reviews and the resulting administrative burden to review each company for which a request has been made, the Department is exercising its authority to limit the number of respondents selected for review. See section 777A(c)(2) of the Act. In selecting the respondents for individual review, the Department intends to select respondents based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) data for U.S. imports during the period of review.

We intend to release the CBP data under administrative protective order (APO) to all parties having an APO within five days of publication of this Federal Register notice, and to make our decisions regarding respondent selection within 20 days of publication of this notice. The Department invites comments regarding the CBP data and respondent selection within 10 days of publication of this Federal Register notice.

Interested parties must submit applications for disclosure under APO in accordance with 19 CFR 351.305. Instructions for filing such applications may be found on the Department's website at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/apo.

This initiation and notice are in accordance with section 751(a)(1) of the Act and 19 CFR 351.221(c)(1)(i).