PUBLIC VERSION
None of the relevant facts have changed, and the Commission should thus reach the same conclusion in this safeguard proceeding.
* * *
The factors the Commission typically analyzes in a safeguard investigation support defining the like domestic product as all QSP. The physical properties, end uses, production process, marketing channels, and customs treatment of the imported article demonstrate that domestically produced and imported QSP are substantially identical under the Commission’ s regulations. Moreover, with respect to crushed glass surfaces and other types of QSP that do not incorporate glass, the significant overlap in physical characteristics, uses, and manufacturing processes described above does not support finding clear dividing lines between these products. Accordingly, the Commission should define the domestic like product as inclusive of all QSP corresponding to the definition of the imported article.
E.
Domestic Industry
Given the definition of the domestic like product as QSP, the domestic industry consists of integrated U. S. producers of QSP slabs. 78 These producers are listed and discussed further in Section III. 79
78 See 19 U. S. C. § 2252( c)( 6)( A)( i).
79 Petitioner does not include stand-alone fabricators as domestic producers in this petition. First, as per
the Commission’ s practice, stand-alone fabricators do not engage in“ sufficient production-related activities” to be included as domestic producers of QSP. Second, many stand-alone fabricators import QSP slabs and thus their interests are not aligned with QSP slab producers that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in production facilities in the United States. Third, to the extent stand-alone fabricators are fabricating slabs that were produced in the United States, the production of those slabs has already been accounted for in the production figures reported by domestic slab producers. Fourth, there are many thousands of fabricators operating in the United States and there is no publicly available list of all the fabricators. Fifth, in the investigations of QSP from China, the Commission received responses to its U. S. producer questionnaires from U. S. producers of QSP slabs that accounted for the vast majority of slab production, but it only received 17 fabricator questionnaire responses that accounted for only one percent
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