[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 241 (Thursday, December 16, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 78678-78679]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-31643]
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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
International Trade Administration
Proposed Methodology for Respondent Selection in Antidumping
Proceedings; Request for Comment
AGENCY: Import Administration, International Trade Administration,
Department of Commerce.
SUMMARY: The Department of Commerce (``the Department'') seeks public
comment on its proposed methodology for respondent selection and
related issues.
DATES: To be assured of consideration, comments must be received no
later than January 18, 2011.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Albert Hsu, Senior Economist, Office
of Policy, Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th
Street and Constitution Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20230; telephone:
(202) 482-4491.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
When the number of producers/exporters (``companies'') involved in
an antidumping investigation or review is so large that the Department
finds it impracticable to examine each company individually, the
Department has statutory authority to limit its examination to (1) a
sample of exporters, producers, or types of products that is
statistically valid based on the information available to the
administering authority 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 (see sections
777A(c)(2)(A) and (B) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (``the
Act'')). The Department has, to date, used the second option in
virtually every one of its proceedings. A consequence of this practice
is that companies under investigation or review with relatively smaller
import volumes have typically not been selected by the Department for
individual examination.
Sampling companies with varying import volumes under section
777A(c)(2)(A) of the Act is one way to remedy this problem. If the
Department were to select respondents on the basis of a sample, the
statute requires that the sample be ``statistically valid.'' The
Department has interpreted this requirement as referring to the manner
in which the Department selects respondents and not to the size of the
sample or precision of the sample results. See Brake Rotors From the
People's Republic of China: Final Results and Partial Rescission of the
2004/2005 Administrative Review and Notice of Rescission of 2004/2005
New Shipper Review 71 FR 66304 (Nov. 14, 2006), and accompanying Issues
and Decision Memorandum at Comment 1A.
Therefore, to ensure the statistical validity of the samples, in
the methodology described below, the Department proposes to employ a
sampling technique that (1) is random, (2) is stratified, and (3) uses
probability-proportional-to-size (``PPS'') samples. Random selection
ensures that every company has a chance of being selected as a
respondent and captures potential variability across the population.
Stratification by import volume ensures the participation of companies
of different import volume in the investigation or review, given the
small samples that would be used. Finally, PPS samples ensure that the
probability of each company being chosen as a respondent is
proportional to its share of imports in its respective stratum.
Proposed Methodology
1.1 When To Sample
Given the benefits of sampling described above, where possible, the
Department proposes to use sampling to select respondents rather than
limiting its examination to companies accounting for the largest import
volume that can be reasonably examined. However, the Department will,
in general, forgo sampling under the following circumstances: (1) If,
due to resource constraints, the Department is unable to examine at
least three companies, (2) when the largest companies by import volume
account for at least 75 percent of total imports, or (3) when
characteristics of the underlying population make it highly likely that
results obtained from the largest possible sample, given resource
constraints, would be unreasonable to represent the population.
To make a determination under (3) above, for a segment of a
proceeding in which the Department intends to apply sampling for
respondent selection, the Department proposes to announce a ten-day
period for interested parties to comment on the existence of
significant variation in company characteristics that are likely to
have a substantial effect on the variation in dumping margins of the
companies in the population in question. The comments can take into
account sampled company margins from previous segments of the
proceeding, if such data exist, that may indicate significant variation
in the individual margins of sampled companies. If the Department
receives any comment, there will be a five-day rebuttal period before
the Department announces its decision on the respondent selection
method for that segment of the proceeding. If the Department does not
find that selecting respondents through sampling is appropriate for
that particular segment based on information and comments on the record
at the time of respondent selection, the Department will choose as
respondents those companies accounting for the largest import volume
that can be reasonably examined, in accordance with section
777A(c)(2)(B) of the Act.
1.2 Definition of Population
Currently, the Department generally chooses companies for
individual examination based on import volumes reported in case-
specific Customs and Border Protection (``CBP'') import data. It also
assigns an antidumping duty rate to all other companies that are not
selected for individual examination. The Department currently does not
require
[[Page 78679]]
any evidence of shipment from a non-selected company before making its
respondent-selection decision. However, in the sampling context, the
existence of shipments will be required in order to both define the
population, and if the company is selected, establish a dumping margin
for the company. Therefore, the Department will normally use CBP data
as evidence of shipment, and proposes to define the relevant population
from which to sample as (1) all companies subject to investigation with
shipments of subject merchandise, and (2) all companies named in a
review with shipments of subject merchandise.
In a non-market economy (``NME'') case, the relevant population
should not include companies that are a part of the NME entity. Since
the Department may not be able to determine a company's eligibility for
a separate rate before respondent selection, the Department proposes to
exclude from the relevant population companies that have not submitted
separate rate applications.
1.3 Sampling Technique
The Department proposes to use stratified PPS samples. The first
step in the proposed sampling technique is to sort all companies in the
relevant population from largest to smallest, based on import volumes.
Second, companies would be segregated into a number of strata equal to
the sample size, with each stratum accounting for approximately the
same share of import volume. For example, if the Department determines
that it may individually examine three respondents, the companies would
be divided into three strata, each accounting for approximately a third
of imports. Third, one respondent from each stratum would be selected
using PPS. If a single company accounts for more than 33 percent or
more of imports, that company would be assigned its own stratum and the
remaining companies would be divided into two strata accounting for an
equal share of the remaining imports. Then, one respondent would be
selected from each of these strata. If two companies each account for
more than 33 percent or more of imports, each of the two companies
would be assigned its own stratum and one respondent would be randomly
selected from the remaining companies.
1.4 Calculating and Assigning Rates
After examination of selected respondents by the sampling method,
the Department will need to assign a rate to all non-selected
companies. To do so, the Department proposes to calculate a ``sample
rate,'' which will be an average of all selected respondent rates,
weighted by the import share of their corresponding strata. In a market
economy case, all companies in the relevant population who were not
selected for individual examination would receive the sample rate.
Consistent with the definition of ``relevant population'' above, in NME
cases, only companies in the relevant population that qualify for
separate rates would receive the sample rate; those that do not qualify
for separate rates would receive the NME country-wide rate.
Request for Comments
In addition to comments on the methodology described above, the
Department requests comments on the following issues. First, how should
the Department address the case in which a selected respondent needs to
be replaced, due to withdrawal or disqualification for any reason?
Examples of disqualified respondents include companies in an NME case
that applied for a separate rate but do not qualify for such a rate,
and companies with shipment of subject merchandize in CBP data due to
misclassification. Second, how should the Department treat voluntary
respondents in the sampling context? Finally, how should the Department
treat adverse-facts-available, de minimis, and zero antidumping duty
rates in its calculation of the sample rate?
Submission of Comments
As specified above, to be assured of consideration, comments must
be received no later than January 31, 2011. All comments must be
submitted through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov, Docket No. ITA-2010-0009, unless the commenter
does not have access to the Internet. Commenters that do not have
access to the Internet may submit the original and two copies of each
set of comments by mail or hand delivery/courier. All comments should
be addressed to the Secretary of Commerce, Attention: Albert Hsu,
Senior Economist, Office of Policy, Room 1870, Import Administration,
U.S., Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Ave., NW.,
Washington, DC 20230.
The Department will consider all comments received before the close
of the comment period. The Department will not accept comments
accompanied by a request that part or all of the material be treated
confidentially because of its business proprietary nature or for any
other reason. All comments responding to this notice will be a matter
of public record and will be available for inspection at Import
Administration's Central Records Unit (Room 7046 of the Herbert C.
Hoover Building) and on the Department's Web site at http://www.trade.gov/ia/.
Any questions concerning file formatting, document conversion,
access on the Internet, or other electronic filing issues should be
addressed to Andrew Lee Beller, Import Administration Webmaster, at
(202) 482-0866, e-mail address: [email protected].
Dated: December 10, 2010.
Ronald K. Lorentzen,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Import Administration.
[FR Doc. 2010-31643 Filed 12-15-10; 8:45 am]
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