85FR5237 - 60 day

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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 2020 / Notices
BURDEN TABLE—Continued
Citation 30 CFR 582

Reporting or recordkeeping requirement

Average
number of
annual
responses

Hour
burden

Annual
burden hours

Subpart E—Appeals
50; 15 ............................................

File an appeal ..................................................................

Burden exempt under 5 CFR
1320.4(a)(2), (c).

Total Burden ...................

...........................................................................................

........................

An agency may not conduct or
sponsor, and a person is not required to
respond to, a collection of information
unless it displays a currently valid OMB
control number.
The authority for this action is the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. 3501 et seq.).
Deanna Meyer-Pietruszka,
Chief, Office of Policy, Regulation, and
Analysis.
[FR Doc. 2020–01552 Filed 1–28–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310–MR–P

INTERNATIONAL TRADE
COMMISSION
[Investigation No. 731–TA–1443 (Final)]

Carbon and Alloy Steel Threaded Rod
From Taiwan
Determination
On the basis of the record 1 developed
in the subject investigation, the United
States International Trade Commission
(‘‘Commission’’) determines, pursuant
to the Tariff Act of 1930 (‘‘the Act’’),
that an industry in the United States is
materially injured by reason of imports
of carbon and alloy steel threaded rod
(‘‘threaded rod’’) from Taiwan, provided
for in subheadings 7318.15.50,
7318.15.20, and 7318.19.00 of the
Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the
United States, that have been found by
the U.S. Department of Commerce
(‘‘Commerce’’) to be sold in the United
States at less than fair value (‘‘LTFV’’).2

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Background
The Commission instituted this
investigation effective February 21,
2019, following receipt of
countervailing duty and/or antidumping
duty petitions filed with the
Commission and Commerce on threaded
rod from China, India, Taiwan, and
Thailand, by Vulcan Threaded Products
1 The record is defined in sec. 207.2(f) of the
Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (19
CFR 207.2(f)).
2 84 FR 67258 (December 9, 2019).

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Inc. (‘‘Vulcan’’), Pelham, Alabama. The
Commission established a general
schedule for the conduct of the final
phase of the investigations following
notification of a preliminary
determination by Commerce that
imports of threaded rod from Thailand
were being sold at LTFV within the
meaning of section 733(b) of the Act (19
U.S.C. 1673b(b)).3 Notice of the
scheduling of the final phase of the
Commission’s investigations and of a
public hearing to be held in connection
therewith was given by posting copies
of the notice in the Office of the
Secretary, U.S. International Trade
Commission, Washington, DC, and by
publishing the notice in the Federal
Register of August 27, 2019 (84 FR
44916). The hearing was held in
Washington, DC, on October 15, 2019,
and all persons who requested the
opportunity were permitted to appear in
person or by counsel. The Commission
subsequently issued its final affirmative
determination regarding dumped
imports from Thailand on December 5,
2019 (84 FR 67476, December 10, 2019).
Following notification of a final
determination by Commerce that
imports of threaded rod from Taiwan
were being sold in the United States at
LTFV,4 notice of the supplemental
scheduling of the final phase of the
Commission’s antidumping duty
investigation with respect to Taiwan
was given by posting copies of the
notice in the Office of the Secretary,
U.S. International Trade Commission,
Washington, DC, and by publishing the
notice in the Federal Register of
December 16, 2019 (84 FR 68473).
The Commission made this
determination pursuant to section
735(b) of the Act (19 U.S.C. 1673d(b)).
It completed and filed its determination
in this investigation on January 23,
2020. The views of the Commission are
contained in USITC Publication 5013
(January 2020), entitled Carbon and
Alloy Steel Threaded Rod from Taiwan:
Investigation No. 731–TA–1443 (Final).
3 84
4 84

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FR 38597 (August 7, 2019).
FR 67258 (December 9, 2019).

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212

By order of the Commission.
Issued: January 23, 2020.
Lisa Barton,
Secretary to the Commission.
[FR Doc. 2020–01482 Filed 1–28–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020–02–P

INTERNATIONAL TRADE
COMMISSION
Notice of Request for Extension of a
Previously Approved Information
Collection
United States International
Trade Commission.
ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for
comments.
AGENCY:

This notice announces the
intention of the U.S. International Trade
Commission (Commission) to request a
three-year extension, under the
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the
Act), of the current generic survey
clearance that the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB) previously approved.
The Commission uses this clearance to
issue information collections for
investigations that it is required to
conduct under the Tariff Act of 1930,
the Trade Act of 1974, and other traderemedy statutes that require or authorize
the Commission to make findings or
determinations. The current generic
survey clearance is assigned OMB
Control No. 3117–0016; it will expire on
June 30, 2020. The Commission requests
comments concerning the proposed
information collections under section
3506(c)(2)(A) of the Act; this notice
describes such comments in greater
detail in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section.
DATES: To assure that the Commission
will consider your comments, it must
receive them no later than 60 days after
publication of this notice in the Federal
Register.
ADDRESSES: Submit signed comments to
Lisa R. Barton, Secretary to the
Commission, U.S. International Trade
Commission, 500 E St. SW, Washington,
DC 20436.
SUMMARY:

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5238

Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 2020 / Notices

You
may obtain copies of the proposed
information collection and supporting
documentation from Nathanael Comly,
Supervisory Investigator,
[email protected], (202) 205–
3174. Hearing-impaired persons can
obtain information on this matter by
contacting the Commission’s TDD
terminal, (202) 205–1810. Persons with
mobility impairments who will need
special assistance in gaining access to
the Commission should contact the
Office of the Secretary, (202) 205–2000.
You may also obtain general
information concerning the Commission
by accessing its website (https://
www.usitc.gov).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Request for Comments
The Commission solicits comments as
to: (1) Whether the proposed
information collection is necessary for
the proper performance of the
Commission’s functions, including
whether the information will have
practical utility; (2) the accuracy of the
Commission’s estimate of the burden of
the proposed information collection,
including the validity of the
methodology and assumptions used; (3)
the quality, utility, clarity, and design of
the information to be collected; and (4)
minimization of the burden of the
proposed information collection on
those who are to respond (including
through the use of appropriate
automated, electronic, mechanical, or
other technological forms of information
technology (e.g., permitting electronic
submission of responses)). To the extent
appropriate, please cite to specific
experiences that your firm has had with
other governmental surveys and data
collections.

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Summary of the Proposed Information
Collections
(1) Need for the Proposed Information
Collections
The Commission utilizes the
information requested in questionnaires
and five-year review institution notices
issued under the generic survey
clearance in the following statutory
investigations: Antidumping duty,
countervailing duty, escape clause,
North American Free Trade Agreement
safeguard, market disruption, and
interference with programs of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. This
clearance also includes questionnaires
needed for new types of trade-remedy
investigations, as directed in new
legislation, such as rules of origin
investigations or other import injury
investigations. The Commission’s

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generic survey clearance to issue
questionnaires does not apply to factfinding investigations conducted under
section 332 of the Trade Act of 1974.
The information provided by firms in
response to the questionnaires provides
information that the Commission uses
in making its findings and
determinations. Commission staff
consolidates submitted information and
provides it to the Commission primarily
in the form of a staff report. In addition,
in the majority of its investigations, the
Commission releases completed
questionnaires returned by industry
participants to representatives of parties
to its investigations under an
administrative protective order, the
terms of which safeguard the
confidentiality of any business
proprietary or business confidential
information. Representatives of
interested parties also receive a
confidential version of the staff report
under the administrative protective
order. Subsequent party submissions to
the Commission during the investigative
process are based, in large part, on their
review of the information collected.
Included in the proposed generic
clearance is the administrative
protective order application form and
the forms associated with submitting
new petitions to the Commission. Also
included in the proposed generic
clearance are the institution notices for
the five-year reviews of antidumping
and countervailing duty orders and
suspended investigations. The
Commission will evaluate responses to
the institution notices, which will form
much of the record supporting the
Commission’s determinations to
conduct either expedited or full fiveyear reviews of existing antidumping
and countervailing duty orders.
(2) Information Collection Plan
The Commission sends questionnaires
for specific investigations to all
identified domestic producers that
manufacture the product(s) in question.
The Commission also sends importer
and purchaser questionnaires to all
substantial U.S. importers and
purchasers of the product(s). Further,
the Commission sends questionnaires to
all foreign manufacturers of the
product(s) in question that are
represented by counsel, and, in
addition, it attempts to contact any
other foreign manufacturers, especially
if they export the product(s) in question
to the United States. Firms receiving
questionnaires include businesses,
farms, and other for-profit institutions;
responses by domestic firms are
mandatory. The Commission publishes
institution notices for the five-year

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reviews in the Federal Register and
solicits comments from interested
parties (e.g., U.S. producers within the
industry in question, as well as labor
unions or representative groups of
workers, U.S. importers and foreign
exporters, and involved foreign country
governments).
(3) Description of the Information To Be
Collected
As it relates to import injury
questionnaires, the content of each
questionnaire will differ based on the
needs of a particular investigation;
questionnaires are based on longestablished, generic formats. Producer
questionnaires generally consist of the
following four parts: (Part I) general
questions relating to the organization
and activities of the firm; (part II) data
on capacity, production, inventories,
employment, and the quantity and value
of the firm’s shipments and purchases
from various sources; (part III) financial
data, including income-and-loss data on
the product in question, data on asset
valuation, research and development
expenses, and capital expenditures; and
(part IV) pricing and market factors.
(Questionnaires may, on occasion, also
contain part V, an abbreviated version of
the above-listed parts, used for gathering
data on additional product categories.)
Importer questionnaires generally
consist of three parts: (Part I) general
questions relating to the organization
and activities of the firm; (part II) data
on the firm’s imports and the shipment
and inventories of its imports; and (part
III) pricing and market factors similar to
that requested in the domestic producer
questionnaire. Purchaser questionnaires
generally consist of four parts: (Part I)
general questions relating to the
organization and activities of the firm;
(part II) data concerning the purchases
of the product by the firm and the
names of the firm’s vendors; (part III)
market characteristics and purchasing
practices; and (part IV) comparisons
between imported and U.S.-produced
product. The Commission may send an
abbreviated purchaser questionnaire: (1)
In a preliminary phase investigation,
consisting of two parts: (Part I) data
concerning the purchases of the product
by the firm; and (part II) questions
regarding purchasing practices; or (2) in
an adequacy phase of a review
investigation, consisting of one part:
(Part I) general questions regarding the
industry. Foreign producer
questionnaires generally consist of: (Part
I) general questions relating to the
organization and activities of the firm;
(part II) data concerning the firm’s
manufacturing operations; and may
include (part III) market factors. The

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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 19 / Wednesday, January 29, 2020 / Notices
notices of institution for the five-year
reviews include 11 specific requests for
information that firms are to provide if
their response is to be considered by the
Commission.
(4) Estimated Burden of the Proposed
Information Collection
The Commission estimates that
information collections issued under the
requested generic clearance will impose
an average annual burden of 409,250
hours on 12,935 respondents (i.e.,
recipients that provide a response to the
Commission’s questionnaires, notices of
institution of five-year reviews, and
other investigations and forms).

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The Commission periodically reviews
its investigative processes, including
data collection, to reduce the
information burden. Questionnaires
clearly state that estimates are
acceptable for certain items. They are
designed in part with check-in type
formats to simplify the response. The
reporting burden is reduced by limiting
data to a terminal year when a time
series is not required. Moreover, the
reporting burden for smaller firms is
reduced in that the sections of the
questionnaire that are applicable to their
operations are typically more limited
and, when pertinent, there are fewer
requested data points. The Commission
will not accept requests by parties to
expand the data collection or add items
to the questionnaire for specific
investigations if it believes that such
requests will increase the response
burden without substantially adding to
the investigative record. Respondents
typically submit the information
provided in response to the
Commission’s notices of institution for
the five-year reviews in hard copy
directly to the Office of the Secretary,
although respondents may submit them
to the Commission’s Electronic Data
Information System (EDIS) and
Electronic Docket. In addition, the
Commission has reduced the
information burden by streamlining the
questionnaires. For example, the
Commission removed redundant fields,
added auto-calculated reconciliation
fields, enabled population of whole data
tables, and reduced the number of years
for which data is collected in certain
five-year reviews. In addition, the
Commission ceased collecting
nonsubject pricing data in preliminary
proceedings.
No record keeping burden is known to
result from the proposed collection of
information.
By order of the Commission.

17:27 Jan 28, 2020

[FR Doc. 2020–01481 Filed 1–28–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 7020–02–P

INTERNATIONAL TRADE
COMMISSION
[Investigation No. 731–TA–1472
(Preliminary)]

Difluoromethane (R–32) From China;
Institution of Anti-Dumping Duty
Investigation and Scheduling of
Preliminary Phase Investigation
United States International
Trade Commission.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:

(5) Minimization of Burden

VerDate Sep<11>2014

Issued: January 23, 2020.
Lisa Barton,
Secretary to the Commission.

Jkt 250001

The Commission hereby gives
notice of the institution of an
investigation and commencement of
preliminary phase antidumping duty
investigation No. 731–TA–1472
(Preliminary) pursuant to the Tariff Act
of 1930 (‘‘the Act’’) to determine
whether there is a reasonable indication
that an industry in the United States is
materially injured or threatened with
material injury, or the establishment of
an industry in the United States is
materially retarded, by reason of
imports of difluoromethane (R–32) from
China, provided for in subheading
2903.39.20 of the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States, that are
alleged to be sold in the United States
at less than fair value. Unless the
Department of Commerce (‘‘Commerce’’)
extends the time for initiation, the
Commission must reach a preliminary
determination in antidumping duty
investigations in 45 days, or in this case
by March 9, 2020. The Commission’s
views must be transmitted to Commerce
within five business days thereafter, or
by March 16, 2020.
DATES: January 23, 2020.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Ahdia Bavari (202–205–3191), Office of
Investigations, U.S. International Trade
Commission, 500 E Street SW,
Washington, DC 20436. Hearingimpaired persons can obtain
information on this matter by contacting
the Commission’s TDD terminal on 202–
205–1810. Persons with mobility
impairments who will need special
assistance in gaining access to the
Commission should contact the Office
of the Secretary at 202–205–2000.
General information concerning the
Commission may also be obtained by
accessing its internet server (https://
www.usitc.gov). The public record for
this investigation may be viewed on the
SUMMARY:

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Commission’s electronic docket (EDIS)
at https://edis.usitc.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background.—This investigation is
being instituted, pursuant to section
733(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930 (19
U.S.C. 1673b(a)), in response to a
petition filed on January 23, 2020, by
Arkema Inc., King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania.
For further information concerning
the conduct of this investigation and
rules of general application, consult the
Commission’s Rules of Practice and
Procedure, part 201, subparts A and B
(19 CFR part 201), and part 207,
subparts A and B (19 CFR part 207).
Participation in the investigation and
public service list.—Persons (other than
petitioners) wishing to participate in the
investigation as parties must file an
entry of appearance with the Secretary
to the Commission, as provided in
sections 201.11 and 207.10 of the
Commission’s rules, not later than seven
days after publication of this notice in
the Federal Register. Industrial users
and (if the merchandise under
investigation is sold at the retail level)
representative consumer organizations
have the right to appear as parties in
Commission antidumping duty
investigations. The Secretary will
prepare a public service list containing
the names and addresses of all persons,
or their representatives, who are parties
to this investigation upon the expiration
of the period for filing entries of
appearance.
Limited disclosure of business
proprietary information (BPI) under an
administrative protective order (APO)
and BPI service list.—Pursuant to
section 207.7(a) of the Commission’s
rules, the Secretary will make BPI
gathered in this investigation available
to authorized applicants representing
interested parties (as defined in 19
U.S.C. 1677(9)) who are parties to the
investigation under the APO issued in
the investigation, provided that the
application is made not later than seven
days after the publication of this notice
in the Federal Register. A separate
service list will be maintained by the
Secretary for those parties authorized to
receive BPI under the APO.
Conference.—The Commission’s
Director of Investigations has scheduled
a conference in connection with this
investigation for 9:30 a.m. on Thursday,
February 13, 2020, at the U.S.
International Trade Commission
Building, 500 E Street SW, Washington,
DC. Requests to appear at the conference
should be emailed to
[email protected] (DO
NOT FILE ON EDIS) on or before

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