WASHINGTON – US polyester manufacturers have applauded a decision by the US Department of Commerce to apply tariffs to fine denier polyester staple fibre (fine denier PSF) imports from China, India, Korea and Taiwan after complaints of dumping earlier this year. The decision is in-keeping with the increasingly protectionist rhetoric of the Trump administration.
Three US polyester fibre producers – DAK Americas LLC (DAK), Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America (Nan Ya), and Auriga Polymers Inc. (Auriga) – filed petitions with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and the US Department of Commerce (Commerce) in May 2017 alleging that dumped imports of fine denier PSF from China, India, Korea, and Taiwan, and subsidised imports of fine denier PSF from China and India were damaging the US domestic industry.
The ITC ruled that the domestic industry is materially injured unfairly by fine denier PSF imports, and antidumping and countervailing investigations were implemented.
All four countries have now been found to have violated US rules by dumping fine denier polyester staple fibre. The DOC said it will now instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits as preliminary anti-dumping tariffs from fine denier polyester staple fibre manufacturers in the four countries.
“The US values its relationships with these nations, but all of our trading partners must play by the rules,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said in a statement.
“We will continue to review all information related to this preliminary determination while standing up for American businesses and workers,” he added.
In the case of Taiwan, Tainan Spinning Co. and Far Eastern Textile Ltd are the mandatory respondents. A preliminary dumping rate of zero per cent for Tainan Spinning has been set, while Far Eastern has been assigned a rate of 48.86 per cent.
The DOC has also determined a preliminary dumping rate of 24.43 per cent for all other producers and exporters of fine denier polyester staple fibre from Taiwan.
China’s exporters face preliminary anti-dumping rates ranging between 52.66 per cent and 170.92 per cent, and Indian and South Korean firms have been assigned anti-dumping rates of 0.66-15.66 per cent and 0-45.23 per cent respectively.
“We are pleased with the overall strong antidumping duty determinations in each of these four cases. The margins support what the domestic fine denier PSF industry has experienced for years – the growing presence of dumped merchandise from China, India, Korea, and Taiwan in the US market,” said Paul Rosenthal, of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to the petitioning domestic producers. “While we are disappointed with the few instances in which the Department of Commerce calculated a low or no margin, we are confident that the Department’s close review of additional evidence leading to the final determinations will result in further critical trade relief for the domestic industry.”