Following a review of interested party comments, the Commerce Department maintained its finding that Italian pasta maker Newlat Food S.p.A. is not the successor-in-interest to Delverde Industrie Alimentari S.p.A. following a merger of the two companies. In a May 4 issues and decision memorandum that accompanied Commerce's final results of a changed circumstances review, the agency found that, despite Newlat's Dec. 31, 2019, acquisition of Delverde, the entire executive staff, production, supplier relationships and customer base of Newlat differs from pre-merger Delverde's. “We further recommend finding that Newlat may not receive the company-specific cash deposit requirements previously assigned to Delverde, but instead shall continue to be subject to the cash deposit requirements for all-other producers and exporters,” the memo said.
The following new requests for antidumping and countervailing duty scope rulings were filed with the Commerce Department during the week of April 26-30:
The Commerce Department will not modify the scope of its ongoing antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on aluminum foil from Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia and Turkey in preliminary AD duty determinations now imminent in the cases, Commerce said in a preliminary scope memorandum issued April 27. The agency ruled against requests from respondents to the investigations to exclude household aluminum foil and thin-gauge foil (with a thickness less than 7 microns), deferring to petitioners’ wishes not to exclude the products. Both products are covered by the scope of the AD/CVD investigations as currently written.
Diamond sawblades made by Protech in Canada from a core and segments each of Chinese and non-Chinese origin are not subject to antidumping duties on diamond sawblades from China (A-570-900), but some are covered by duties nonetheless due to Protech’s partial ineligibility for making the required certifications, the Commerce Department said in a scope ruling issued April 27.
Filers of a recent petition for antidumping duties on raw honey Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam told the Commerce Department April 23 that the scope of the proposed investigations should be amended to set specific criteria for the filtering out of pollen. The scope clarification, filed by the American Honey Producers Association and the Sioux Honey Association, says “raw honey” is typically unfiltered, as opposed to processed honey that has been filtered to remove pollen, wax and other impurities. While the scope in the petition said that “raw honey has not been filtered to a level that results in the removal of most or all of the pollen,” the petitioners now propose to add the phrase, “e.g., a level that removes pollen to below 25 microns,” to the end of that statement. They say 25 microns is the average size of pollen filtered out by honey packers. “Honey that tests for particulates, including pollen 25 micron or more, remains raw honey for purposes of this investigation,” they said.