(a) Introduction. When a petition is filed under §351.202, the Secretary must determine that the petition satisfies the relevant statutory requirements before initiating an antidumping or countervailing duty investigation. This section sets forth rules regarding a determination as to the sufficiency of a petition (including the determination that a petition is supported by the domestic industry), the deadline for making the determination, and the actions to be taken once the Secretary has made the determination.

(b) Determination of sufficiency—(1) In general. Normally, not later than 20 days after a petition is filed, the Secretary, on the basis of sources readily available to the Secretary, will examine the accuracy and adequacy of the evidence provided in the petition and determine whether to initiate an investigation under section 702(c)(1)(A) or section 732(c)(1)(A) of the Act (whichever is applicable).

(2) Extension where polling required. If the Secretary is required to poll or otherwise determine support for the petition under section 702(c)(4)(D) or section 732(c)(4)(D) of the Act, the Secretary may, in exceptional circumstances, extend the 20-day period by the amount of time necessary to collect and analyze the required information. In no case will the period between the filing of a petition and the determination whether to initiate an investigation exceed 40 days.

(c) Notice of initiation and distribution of petition—(1) Notice of initiation. If the initiation determination of the Secretary under section 702(c)(1)(A) or section 732(c)(1)(A) of the Act is affirmative, the Secretary will initiate an investigation and publish in the Federal Register notice of “Initiation of Antidumping (Countervailing Duty) Investigation.” The Secretary will notify the Commission at the time of initiation of the investigation and will make available to employees of the Commission directly involved in the proceeding the information upon which the Secretary based the initiation and which the Commission may consider relevant to its injury determinations.

(2) Distribution of petition. As soon as practicable after initiation of an investigation, the Secretary will provide a public version of the petition to all known exporters (including producers who sell for export to the United States) of the subject merchandise. If the Secretary determines that there is a particularly large number of exporters involved, instead of providing the public version to all known exporters, the Secretary may provide the public version to a trade association of the exporters or, alternatively, may consider the requirement of the preceding sentence to have been satisfied by the delivery of a public version of the petition to the government of the exporting country under §351.202(f).

(d) Insufficiency of petition. If an initiation determination of the Secretary under section 702(c)(1)(A) or section 732(c)(1)(A) of the Act is negative, the Secretary will dismiss the petition, terminate the proceeding, notify the petitioner in writing of the reasons for the determination, and publish in the Federal Register notice of “Dismissal of Antidumping (Countervailing Duty) Petition.”

(e) Determination of industry support. In determining industry support for a petition under section 702(c)(4) or section 732(c)(4) of the Act, the following rules will apply:

(1) Measuring production. The Secretary normally will measure production over a twelve-month period specified by the Secretary, and may measure production based on either value or volume. Where a party to the proceeding establishes that production data for the relevant period, as specified by the Secretary, is unavailable, production levels may be established by reference to alternative data that the Secretary determines to be indicative of production levels.

(2) Positions treated as business proprietary information. Upon request, the Secretary may treat the position of a domestic producer or workers regarding the petition and any production information supplied by the producer or workers as business proprietary information under §351.105(c)(10).

(3) Positions expressed by workers. The Secretary will consider the positions of workers and management regarding the petition to be of equal weight. The Secretary will assign a single weight to the positions of both workers and management according to the production of the domestic like product of the firm in which the workers and management are employed. If the management of a firm expresses a position in direct opposition to the position of the workers in that firm, the Secretary will treat the production of that firm as representing neither support for, nor opposition to, the petition.

(4) Certain positions disregarded.

(i) The Secretary will disregard the position of a domestic producer that opposes the petition if such producer is related to a foreign producer or to a foreign exporter under section 771(4)(B)(ii) of the Act, unless such domestic producer demonstrates to the Secretary's satisfaction that its interests as a domestic producer would be adversely affected by the imposition of an antidumping order or a countervailing duty order, as the case may be; and

(ii) The Secretary may disregard the position of a domestic producer that is an importer of the subject merchandise, or that is related to such an importer, under section 771(4)(B)(ii) of the Act.

(5) Polling the industry. In conducting a poll of the industry under section 702(c)(4)(D)(i) or section 732(c)(4)(D)(i) of the Act, the Secretary will include unions, groups of workers, and trade or business associations described in paragraphs (9)(D) and (9)(E) of section 771 of the Act.

(f) Time limits where petition involves same merchandise as that covered by an order that has been revoked. Under section 702(c)(1)(C) or section 732(c)(1)(C) of the Act, and in expediting an investigation involving subject merchandise for which a prior order was revoked or a suspended investigation was terminated, the Secretary will consider “section 751(d)” as including a predecessor provision.