FINAL RESULTS OF REDETERMINATION PURSUANT TO COURT REMAND

Usinor Sacilor v. United States,

Consol. Ct. No. 93-04-00230-CVD

Slip Op. 97-70 and Order (CIT May 30, 1997)

I. Introduction The Department of Commerce (the Department) has prepared these final remand results pursuant to the remand from the U.S. Court of International Trade (the Court) in Usinor Sacilor v. United States, Slip Op. 97-70 and Order (May 30, 1997) (Usinor Sacilor III). Both the Department and the Court have described the procedural and factual history of this proceeding elsewhere, including in Usinor Sacilor III, the Court's May 30, 1997 decision ordering the present remand.

The Court's remand instructs the Department to adjust the countervailing duty rate to reflect the Court's finding that evidence of transfers from Usinor Sacilor to its non-French production operations demonstrates that a portion of the subsidies at issue were likely used to benefit Usinor Sacilor's non-French production. Although the Department respectfully disagrees with the Court's decision, it has followed the Court's instructions.

II. Discussion

Under its tying methodology in the multinational production context, when the Department finds that foreign production likely has benefitted from a subsidy, its practice is to use the respondent's total worldwide sales in the denominator of the benefit calculation. See, Final Affirmative Countervailing Duty Determination; Certain Steel Products from Austria, 58 FR 37217, 37231-32 (July 9, 1993)(General Issues Appendix). Thus, in accordance with the Court's instructions to adjust the countervailing duty rate to reflect Usinor Sacilor's transfers to its non-French production operations, the Department has revised its benefit calculation, using Usinor Sacilor's total worldwide sales, excluding shipping expenses, as the denominator of the benefit calculation for the programs subject to this remand. These programs include Government of France (GOF) subsidies in the form of conversions of debt instruments into equity or equity infusions in 1981, 1986, and 1988, and GOF subsidies given in the form of shareholders' advances in the years 1982 through 1986.

III. Comments

We received comments on the Department's draft redetermination from parties on July 21, 1997. Usinor Sacilor comments that the Department's remand redetermination is consistent with the Court's instructions and the Department's methodology. Inland Steel Industries, Inc. comments that while it respectfully disagrees with the Court's remand decision, the Department complied with the terms of the remand.

IV. Conclusion

In accordance with the Court's instructions, the Department determines that the total estimated net subsidy for Usinor Sacilor is 12.51 percent ad valorem.

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Richard W. Moreland
Acting Assistant Secretary
for Import Administration

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Date: July 23, 1997