Import Administration Policy Bulletin
Number: 00.1
Date of Issue: June 8, 2000
Topic: Expediting Antidumping Duty Investigations
Author: James P. Maeder, Jr.
Office of Policy
Approved: ___________________
Troy H. Cribb
Acting Assistant Secretary
for Import Administration
Statement of Issue
Conditions under which the Department may expedite an antidumping duty
investigation.
Analysis
The antidumping law requires the Department to make a final determination
within 235 days after the filing of a petition, except where circumstances
permit the extension of certain time limits. Specifically, the law
requires the Department to initiate an investigation within 20 days of the
filing of a proper petition, to make a preliminary determination within
140 days after initiation, and to make a final determination within 75
days after the preliminary determination (emphasis added). (See sections
732(c), 733(b) and 735(a) of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended (the
Act).) Under the maximum permitted extensions of the time limits for the
initiation and the preliminary and final determinations, a final
determination may be issued up to approximately 365 days after the
petition was filed. There is no minimum period for the completion of
antidumping investigations. (1)
In extraordinary circumstances, the Department may determine that it is
necessary to expedite an investigation and complete it sooner than the
initial deadlines provided in the Act. For example, in response to the
tremendous surge of steel imports in 1998, the Department expedited a
number of antidumping investigations on steel products by completing the
preliminary determinations weeks earlier than the time limits prescribed
by the Act.
Expediting antidumping investigations is difficult and resource
intensive. In the period between initiation and the preliminary
determination, the Department must select respondents, compile and serve
the questionnaire, analyze questionnaire responses, draft supplemental
questionnaires, perform margin calculations, and draft the decision
memoranda and Federal Register notice, as in any other investigation. In
order to ensure that parties are not prejudiced by a decision to expedite
an investigation, the Department recognizes that any compression of the
investigation schedule must be based on compression of the Department's
time for performing its work. Moreover, because an expedited investigation
must be completed concurrently with other case work, an investigation
should be expedited only in the most extraordinary of circumstances. In
order to clarify those situations in which the Department may consider
expediting an investigation, we are setting forth the following criteria
that must be addressed when requesting the Department to expedite a case.
The Department will consider expediting an investigation upon receiving,
concurrently with the filing of the petition, a request from the
petitioner addressing the factors cited in this policy bulletin. The
factors are as follows:
1. Surge in Imports
This is the most critical factor to consider when deciding whether to
expedite an investigation. We will consider evidence of an extraordinary
import surge during a period prior to the filing of the petition. The
surge must be at very high levels relative to a similar period immediately
prior to the surge and/or to the same periods of the year over the
preceding two years. If seasonal products are involved, we will consider
surges relative to the prior seasonal periods.
The surge must be unusually high for the product and the particular
country which is the subject of the petition. A petition may be filed on
imports from multiple countries and the import data may indicate that a
surge exists when taking into account all imports from those countries
combined. However, if the data indicate that there is no surge with
respect to imports from any particular country, the Department may decide
not to expedite the investigation of that country and only expedite the
investigation of those countries that are the source of the surge in
imports.
2. Import Penetration
The Department also will take into account the level of imports of the
merchandise from countries against which the petition was filed compared
to total domestic consumption of the like product. In addition to an
absolute surge in imports, the request must include information showing
that the import surge led to an increase in import penetration, and that
the level of imports represents a substantial volume relative to domestic
production, if the data are available.
3. Magnitude of the Initiation Dumping Margins and Import Price Declines
Obviously, a determination of whether a dumping margin is unusually high
must be made on a case-by-case basis. However, the greater the initiation
dumping margins, the stronger the contention that an expedited
investigation is warranted.
We will also consider available evidence as to the magnitude of recent
declines in import prices. Severely declining prices may be indicative of
a deteriorating situation warranting expedited action.
4. Prior Dumping
The Department will take into account whether there are prior
determinations of dumping the same product or same general product
category of merchandise from the subject country in the United States
or other countries.
Once the Department determines that it will expedite an investigation, it
will develop a schedule for the investigation and make it available to all
interested parties. Attached as an example is the expedited schedule that
was used in the recent antidumping investigations of hot-rolled flat-
rolled carbon-quality steel products from Brazil, Japan, and Russia.
The reason for expediting an investigation is to provide relief as soon
as possible to an industry in the United States that is faced with an
extraordinary situation, based on the factors outlined above. A decision
to expedite an investigation in no way implies that the Department has
prematurely concluded that a party is guilty of dumping, a decision that
can only be made based upon the facts developed during the proceeding.
The preliminary determination is the earliest point in an investigation
where relief is given - in the form of suspension of liquidation and
collection of duty deposits or the posting of a bond. Therefore, the
portion of the investigation that will be expedited will be that period
prior to the preliminary determination.
Once the Department publishes its preliminary determination, the Act
provides just 75 days to make a final determination. (2) During those 75
days, the Department normally must issue verification outlines, conduct
verification, write verification reports, receive case and rebuttal briefs
from the interested parties, hold a public hearing, if one is requested,
analyze all comments, and make its final determination. Given the amount
of work that must be performed in the allotted amount of time, normally we
will not make our final determinations any earlier than 75 days after the
publication of the preliminary determination.
If, during the course of the investigation, it becomes apparent that, due
to the complexity of the case and difficulties that may arise, the
Department cannot meet the expedited deadlines, it retains the discretion
to alter the deadlines as it deems necessary, consistent with the
statutory and regulatory deadlines.
Statement of Policy
If the facts of the case warrant it, the Department, upon request and
consideration of support provided by the petitioner, may expedite an
antidumping investigation.
Implementation
This policy will be implemented in all future cases where the Department
determines that extraordinary circumstances exist that warrant expediting
the schedule for an investigation and the Department's resources permit
such a schedule.
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footnotes:
1. Section 733(d)(2) of the Act, however, provides that if a preliminary
determination of dumping is made, suspension of liquidation may not cover
entries made less than 60 days after the date of publication of the notice
of initiation in the Federal Register, unless there is also an affirmative
finding of critical circumstances.
2. Section 735(a)(2) of the Act provides that the Department may postpone
the final determination until 135 days after publication of the
preliminary determination upon request by either exporters who account for
a significant proportion of exports of the subject merchandise when the
preliminary determination is affirmative, or by the petitioner, when the
preliminary determination is negative. This policy bulletin does not alter
the manner in which such postponements may be requested or granted.
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