Aluminum Lithographic Printing Plates From the People's Republic of China: Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination and Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

On March 1, 2024, Commerce published its Preliminary Determination in the Federal Register and invited interested parties to comment. On July 22, 2024, Commerce tolled certain deadlines in this administrative proceeding by seven days. The deadline for the final determination is now September 20, 2024. For a complete discussion of the events that followed the Preliminary Determination, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

The Issues and Decision Memorandum is a public document and is made available to the public 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 Issues and Decision Memorandum can be accessed directly at https://access.trade.gov/public/FRNoticesListLayout.aspx.

Scope of the Investigation

The merchandise covered by the scope of this investigation are printing plates from China. For a complete description of the scope of this investigation, see Appendix I.

Scope Comments

We received no comments from interested parties on the scope of the investigation as it appeared in the Preliminary Determination. Therefore, we made no changes to the scope of the investigation.

Verification

As provided in section 782(i) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the Act), in March 2024, Commerce conducted verification of the subsidy information reported by Fujifilm Printing Plate (China) Co., Ltd. (FFPS) and its cross-owned affiliate Fujifilm (China) Investment Co., Ltd.

Analysis of Subsidy Programs and Comments Received

The subsidy programs under investigation and the issues raised in the case and rebuttal briefs by the parties in this investigation are discussed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum. For a list of the issues raised by interested parties and addressed in the Issues and Decision Memorandum, see Appendix II.

Methodology

Commerce conducted this investigation in accordance with section 701 of the Act. For each of the subsidy programs found to be countervailable, Commerce 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. For a full description of the methodology underlying our final determination, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

In making this final determination, Commerce relied, in part, on facts otherwise available, including with an adverse inference, pursuant to sections 776(a) and (b) of the Act. For a full discussion of our application of adverse facts available (AFA), see the Preliminary Determination and the Issues and Decision Memorandum at the section entitled “Uses of Facts Available and Application of Adverse Inferences.”

Changes Since the Preliminary Determination

Based on our review and analysis of the information at verification and comments received from interested parties, we made changes to the subsidy rate calculations for FFPS. For a discussion of these changes, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

Final Affirmative Determination of Critical Circumstances, in Part

Commerce preliminarily determined, in accordance with sections 703(e)(1)(A) and (B) of the Act, and 19 CFR 351.206, that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise for FFPS and Shanghai National Ink Co. Ltd. (Shanghai National). For this final determination, in accordance with section 705(a)(2) of the Act as well as our analysis of comments received regarding our affirmative preliminary determination of critical circumstances, in part, Commerce continues to find that critical circumstances exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise for FFPS and Shanghai National, and do not exist with respect to imports of subject merchandise for all other exporters and producers. For a full description of the methodology and results of our critical circumstances analysis, see the Issues and Decision Memorandum.

All-Others Rate

Pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act, Commerce will determine an all-others rate equal to the weighted-average countervailable subsidy rates established for exporters and/or producers individually investigated, excluding any zero and de minimis countervailable subsidy rates, and any rates determined entirely under section 776 of the Act. We continue to assign a rate based entirely on facts available to Shanghai National. Therefore, the only rate that that is not zero, de minimis, or based entirely on facts otherwise available is the rate calculated for FFPS. Consequently, we continue to assign the rate calculated for FFPS as the rate for all other producers and exporters, pursuant to section 705(c)(5)(A)(i) of the Act.

Final Determination

Commerce determines that the following estimated countervailable subsidy rates exist for the period January 1, 2022, through December 31, 2022: