(a) Submission and content of request. (1) Any person who submits factual information to the Secretary in connection with a proceeding may request that the Secretary treat that information, or any specified part, as proprietary.

(2) The submitter shall identify proprietary information on each page by placing brackets around the proprietary information and clearly stating at the top of each page containing such information “Proprietary Treatment Requested” and the warning “Bracketing of proprietary information not final for one business day after date of filing.” The bracketing becomes final one business day after the date of filing of the document, i.e., at the same time as the nonbusiness proprietary version of the document is due to be filed. Until the bracketing becomes final, recipients of the document may not divulge any part of the contents of the document to anyone not subject to the administrative protective order issued in the investigation. After the bracketing becomes final, recipients may divulge the pubic version of the document to anyone not subject to the administrative protective order. If the submitter discovers it has failed to bracket correctly, the submitter may file a corrected version or portion of the business proprietary document at the same time as the nonbusiness proprietary version is filed. No changes to the document other than bracketing and deletion of business proprietary information are permitted after the deadline. Failure to comply with this paragraph may result in the striking from the record of all or a portion of a submitter's document.

(3) The submitter shall provide a full explanation why each piece of factual information subject to the request is entitled to proprietary treatment under § 353.4. The request and explanation shall be a part of or securely bound with the document containing the information.

(b) Public summary. Except as provided in paragraph (b)(3) of this section, not later than one business day after submitting information for which proprietary treatment is requested, any person who requests proprietary treatment shall provide to the Secretary.

(1) An adequate public summary of all proprietary information, incorporated in the public version of the document (generally, numeric data are adequately summarized if grouped or presented in terms of indices, or figures within 10 percent of the actual figure, and if an individual portion of the data is voluminous, at least one percent representative of that portion is individually summarized in this manner); or

(2) A statement itemizing those portions of the proprietary information which cannot be summarized adequately and all arguments supporting that conclusion for each portion.

(3) All requests for proprietary treatment of information contained in petitions submitted under § 353.12 and proposed suspension agreements submitted under § 353.18(g)(1)(i) shall be accompanied by a public summary and statement described in paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(2) of this section.

(c) Agreement to release. All requests for proprietary treatment shall include either an agreement to permit disclosure under administrative protective order, or a statement itemizing which portions of the proprietary information should not be released under administrative protective order and all arguments supporting that conclusion for each portion. The Secretary ordinarily will not provide the submitter further opportunity for argument on whether to grant a request for disclosure under administrative protective order.

(d) Return of information as a result of nonconforming request. The Secretary may return to the submitter any factual information for which the submitter requested proprietary treatment when the request does not conform to the requirements of this section and in any event will not consider the information. If the Secretary returns the information, the Secretary will provide a written explanation of the reasons why it does not conform and will not consider it unless it is resubmitted with a new request which complies with the requirements of this section not later than two business days after receipt of the Department's explanation for rejection of the information.

(e) Status during consideration of request. While considering whether to grant a request for proprietary treatment, the Secretary will not disclose or make public the information. The Secretary normally will decide not later than 14 days after the Secretary receives the request.

(f) Treatment of proprietary information. Unless the Secretary otherwise provides, the person to whom the Secretary discloses information shall not disclose the information to any other person. The Secretary may disclose factual information which the Secretary decides is proprietary only to:

(1) A representative of an interested party who requests and is granted an administrative protective order under § 353.34;

(2) An employee of the Department directly involved in the proceeding for which the information is submitted;

(3) An employee of the Commission directly involved in the proceeding for which the information is submitted;

(4) An employee of the Customs Service directly involved in conducting a fraud investigation relating to an antidumping duty proceeding on the merchandise;

(5) Any person to whom the submitter specifically authorizes (in writing) disclosure; and

(6) A charged party or counsel for the charged party under part 354 of this title (19 CFR Part 354).

(g) Denial of request for proprietary treatment. If the Secretary decides that the factual information does not warrant proprietary treatment in whole or in part, the Secretary will notify the submitter. Unless the submitter agrees that the information be considered public, the Secretary will return the information to the submitter with written notice stating the reasons for return of the information and will not consider it in the proceeding.