May 25, 1999

Robert S. LaRussa

Assistant Secretary for Import Administration

Dockets Center – Room 1870

Pennsylvania Avenue and 14^th Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20230

Dear Mr. Secretary:

I am writing to provide you with The Timken Company’s comments on the Department of Commerce’s notice clarifying the Department’s interpretation of its automatic-liquidation regulation regarding imports by resellers, published in the Federal Register on October 15, 1998 (63 Fed. Reg. 55361). Timken supports the Department’s policy because it adopts a reasonable presumption regarding foreign producers of merchandise subject to an antidumping or countervailing duty order. That presumption is that a foreign producer that sells to a U.S. reseller knows at the time of the sale that the sale merchandise is to be sold in the United States. See 63 Fed. Reg. at 55,363.

Because of this knowledge, the Department selects the rate of the producer of the subject merchandise as the proper assessment rate for the reseller that imports into the United States. Id. Thus, the Department limits to appropriate circumstances the liquidation of subject entries made by a reseller at the cash deposits collected at the time of entry. Those circumstances exist when neither the producer, the reseller, nor any member of the domestic industry has requested review of those entries.

In sum, Timken supports implementation of this policy by the Commerce Department.

Regards,

Scott A. Scherff

kss/larussa_ltr.sas

bcc: ABMA (1200-19^th Street, N.W., Suite 300
Washington, D.C. 20036-2422)

Mike Haidet

Bob Leibensperger