SUMMARY

The Department of Commerce (the Department) has prepared these final results of redetermination pursuant to the remand order from the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) in NSK Ltd., et al., v. United States, Slip Op. 98-11 (February 4, 1997) (Slip Op. 98-11). In accordance with the CIT's instructions, we have excluded from the home market sales database of NTN Corporation (NTN) only those transactions labeled by NTN as "sample and other similar transfers" for which NTN received no consideration. The recalculated weighted-average margins are 9.3 percent, 7.99 percent, and 0.43 percent for ball bearings (BBs), cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs), and spherical plain bearings (SPBs) manufactured by NTN, respectively.

BACKGROUND

On June 17, 1997, the CIT issued an order remanding to the Department the final results in Antifriction Bearings (Other Than Tapered Roller Bearings) and Parts Thereof From France, et al.; Final Results of Antidumping Duty Administrative Reviews, Partial Termination of Administrative Reviews, and Revocation in Part of Antidumping Duty Orders, 60 FR 10,900 (February 28, 1995) (AFBs IV). NSK Ltd. et al., v. United States, Slip Op. 97-74 (June 17, 1997) (Slip Op. 97-74). The Department's reviews covered the period May 1, 1992, through April 30, 1993. Four respondent firms, NSK, Koyo Seiko, Nippon Pillow Block, NTN, and the petitioner, the Torrington Company (Torrington), contested the Department's decision in AFBs IV. In Slip Op. 97-74, the CIT remanded the final results to the Department with respect to NSK, Koyo, NTN and Nachi and their antidumping duty margins for BBs, CRBs, and SPBs.

In Slip Op. 97-74, the CIT instructed the Department to make several revisions to the Department's margin calculation programs. Among the instructions, the CIT instructed the Department to exclude all of NTN's sample and other similar transfers from NTN's home market sales database. In Slip Op. 98-11, the CIT affirmed the remand results following Slip Op. 97-74, except with respect to NTN's transactions labeled "sample and other similar transfers." The CIT has now instructed the Department to exclude from NTN's home market database only those "sample and other similar transfers" for which NTN received no consideration.

DISCUSSION

For the final results of review, the Department included NTN's home market sample sales in the pool of home market sales it used to derive weighted-average home market prices. NTN contended that the sales should be removed from consideration as outside the ordinary course of trade. We disagreed with NTN, given that the transactions had no particular characteristic to distinguish them as outside the ordinary course of trade. The transactions were not consistently zero-priced, were in varying quantities, and were not returned to NTN at any subsequent point.

In Slip Op. 97-74, the CIT remanded the issue to the Department to exclude the sample and other similar transfers from NTN's home market sales database, citing NSK Ltd. v. United States, 115 F.3d 965 (CAFC June 10, 1997). That decision determined that zero-priced transfers lack consideration as sales and therefore should not be treated as such. In this case, however, the transactions which NTN labeled as "sample and other similar transfers" are not necessarily limited to zero-priced transfers. In other words, for a number of these transactions, the customer did provide monetary consideration in exchange for the bearings.

Torrington moved the CIT to amend Slip Op. 97-74 to exclude only NTN's samples and other similar transfers for which there was no consideration from NTN's home market database. The Department concurred with Torrington. At the time of the issuance of the Department's results of remand, however, the CIT had not ruled on Torrington's motion to amend Slip Op. 97-74. The Department, therefore, complied with the CIT's order to exclude all of NTN's sample and other similar transfers from NTN's database.

On November 20, 1997, the CIT granted Torrington's motion and amended Slip Op. 97-74 to reflect Torrington's motion. NSK et al., v. United States, Slip Op. 97-154 (November 20, 1997). On February 4, 1998, the CIT, in Slip Op. 98-11, affirmed the remand results following Slip Op. 97-74 with the exception of NTN's "sample and other similar transfers." In its order, the CIT remanded the case to the Department to exclude from NTN's home market database only those "sample and other similar transfers" for which NTN received no consideration.

On April 7, 1998, we disclosed our recalculations in draft form to interested parties. We received no comments from interested parties in response to our draft recalculations.

RESULTS OF REDETERMINATION

In accordance with the remand order, we have recalculated the antidumping duty margins for NTN as directed by the CIT.

The recalculated weighted-average percentage dumping margins for NTN for the period May 1, 1992, through April 30, 1993, are 9.3 percent for BBS, 7.99 percent for CRBs, and 0.43 percent for SPBs.

This redetermination is issued pursuant to the order of the CIT in Slip Op. 98-11.

__________________________

Robert S. LaRussa

Assistant Secretary

for Import Administration

April 21, 1998

(Date)