Sections B, C, and E of the Commerce Department's questionnaire seek detailed information and data on sales, and in particular selling prices, of the targeted merchandise. Section B of the questionnaire focuses on sales made in the home market (or third country); section C focuses on the company's United States sales; and, if applicable, section E focuses on 'further manufactured' sales made by a United States affiliate. Responses to all three sections are typically due together (about 45 days after the questionnaire is issued) and therefore response preparations for all three sections should begin at the same time (and as early as possible).

 

 Although each section of the questionnaire asks a few questions that require narrative responses, the heart of these sections of the questionnaire is the request for the company to prepare detailed, computerized sales databases. Typically, a separate sales database is submitted in response to each section of the questionnaire. These databases are what the Commerce Department uses to calculate the dumping margins for the company.

 

The Commerce Department requires these computerized databases to contain incredible amounts of detailed data. Foreign companies reviewing Commerce Department questionnaires for the first time are usually shocked at the level of detail. Essentially, the Commerce Department requires a transaction-by¬transaction listing of every single shipment that the company made of the targeted merchandise to all customers in the particular market (United States market for section C, home market for section B.) In addition, for each transaction the company must. provide a great deal of data on the particular product characteristics and on all selling expenses incurred in selling and shipping the merchandise to the customer. (These selling expenses are used in calculating the price adjustments needed to derive ex-factory prices made at the same level of trade.)

 

The Commerce Department wants three types of data for each transaction: (1) data on the actual sales price; (2) data on the physical characteristics of the merchandise being sold and the quantity of the transaction; and (3) data on the different types of selling expenses and circumstances of sales to calculate appropriate price adjustments.

 

Source: Business Guide to Trade Remedies in the United States: Anti-dumping, countervailing and safeguards legislation practices and procedures