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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 213 / Monday, November 8, 2021 / Notices
production equipment, and facilities to produce automobiles and automotive parts;
e. The growth requirements of the automobiles and automotive parts industry to meet national defense requirements and/or requirements to assure such growth, particularly with respect to investment and research and development;
f. The impact of foreign competition on the economic welfare of the U.S. automobiles and automotive parts industry;
g. The displacement of any domestic automobiles and automotive parts causing substantial unemployment, decrease in the revenues of government, loss of investment or specialized skills and productive capacity, or other serious effects;
h. Relevant factors that are causing or will cause a weakening of our national economy;
i. The extent to which innovation in new automotive technologies is necessary to meet projected national defense requirements;
j. Whether and, if so, how the analysis of the above factors changes when U.S.
production by majority U.S.-owned firms is considered separately from U.S. production by majority foreign-owned firms; and k. Any other relevant factors.20

The public comment period ended on June 29, 2018, and public rebuttal comment period ended on July 13, 2018.
The Department received 2,356 written public comment submissions concerning this investigation. All public comments were carefully reviewed and factored into the investigation process.
A listing of all public comments is available at the U.S. Governments Regulations.gov website specific to this investigation: https
www.regulations.gov/docket?D=DOC2018-0002.
C. Public Hearing The Department held a public hearing to collect additional information concerning this investigation in Washington, DC on July 19, 2018. The second day of the hearing, originally scheduled for July 20, was cancelled because all parties who wished to participate could be accommodated in one day. The Department heard testimony from 44 witnesses at the hearing. The complete hearing transcript is included in Appendix C.

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D. Interagency Consultation In addition to the required notification provided by the May 23, 2018 letter from Secretary Ross to Secretary Mattis,21 the Department carried out the consultations required under Section 232b2.22 Department 20 Id. In response to requests from interested parties, the Department issued a Notice of Request for Public Comments and Public Hearing; Extension of Comment Period, 83 FR 28801 Jun. 21, 2018, extending the due date for comments to June 29, 2018 and rebuttal comments to July 13, 2018.
21 See Appendix A.
22 19 U.S.C. 1862b2.

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staff consulted with counterparts at the DOD and U.S. Customs and Border Protection regarding any methodological and policy questions that arose during the investigation.23
Secretary Mattis also communicated the views of the DOD in a November 15, 2018 letter to Secretary Ross.24 In that letter, Secretary Mattis noted that the Department of Commerce had consulted with the DOD and stressed the importance of the automobile sector and related technologies to U.S. defense requirements and national security needs. Specifically, Secretary Mattis stated:
A healthy U.S. automotive sector supports the manufacturing ecosystem vital to our national defense industrial base. As noted in the National Defense Strategy, new commercial technology will change society and, ultimately, the character of war.
Therefore, U.S. automotive sector leadership in emerging technologies, like autonomous systems, is also critical for continued Department of Defense modernization.25

E. U.S. Producers Survey Responses On June 29, 2018 and on July 25, 2018, respectively, the Department issued industry surveys to U.S.
automobile producers and U.S. armored vehicle producers pursuant to 50 U.S.C.
4555. Information sought included, inter alia, facilities and production data, joint venture data, trade flows, supply chain data, sales and demand data, employment information, conditions of competition, R&D information, and government and defense activities. The principal goal of the survey was to assist the Department in determining whether automobiles and automobile parts are being imported into the United States in such quantities or under such circumstances as to threaten to impair national security. The resulting aggregate data have given the Department detailed industry information that is otherwise not publicly available and was needed to effectively conduct its analysis for this investigation.
Response to the Departments survey is required by law 50 U.S.C. 4555.
Information furnished in the survey responses has been deemed confidential and will not be published or disclosed except in accordance with Section 705
of the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended 50 U.S.C. 4555. Section 705 prohibits the publication or disclosure of this information unless the 23 Id.
24 See Appendix A: Letter from Secretary of Defense James Mattis to Secretary Ross conveying DOD views on Section 232 investigation on imports of automobiles and automobile parts, Nov. 15, 2018.
25 Id.

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President determines that the withholding of such information is contrary to the interest of the national defense. Information will not be shared with any non-government entity other than in aggregate form. The information is protected pursuant to the appropriate exemptions from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act FOIA, should it be the subject of a FOIA
request.
From June 29, 2018 to September 7, 2018, the following TEXT REDACTED
companies responded to the Departments questionnaires:
TEXT REDACTED
IV. Product Scope of the Investigation The scope of this investigation includes passenger vehicles, including sedans, sport utility vehicles SUVs, crossover utility vehicles CUVs, and vans including minivans and cargo vans; light trucks collectively automobiles; and wheeled armored and tactical vehicles used for U.S.
military applications. The scope also includes all categories of automobile parts used in automobiles and armored vehicles, which are defined at multiple points throughout the U.S. Harmonized System HS. A complete listing of automobile and automobile parts codes included in this investigation is provided in Appendix D. As detailed in this report, the Secretary finds that imports of automobiles and imports of engines, engine parts, transmissions, powertrain parts, and electrical components have displaced and threaten further displacement of domestic production and thereby threaten to impair the national security as set out in Section 232. For the purposes of this report, Americanowned automobile producers are General Motors GM, Ford, and Tesla. Prior to 1998, Chrysler was also American-owned. During 19851987, American Motors was American-owned.
V. Background on the Industry A. Global Competitiveness of U.S.
Automobile Producers The U.S. automotive industry has been one of the most powerful forces driving the U.S. economy. Automobile manufacturing and associated services industries employed 4.2 million workers in 2017, amounting to 3 percent of total private sector employment. Of these jobs, 953,000 were in automobile, automotive body, and automobile parts manufacturing and an additional 3.3
million in service industries such as
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