The US Government has provided a win for US-made products and approved preliminary duties following an antidumping ruling against Chinese imports of a particular specialty fabric.
Chinese importers fell foul of antidumping legislation and were accused of having dumped amorphous silica fabric (ASF) on the US market.
In economics, ‘dumping’ is a kind of predatory pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in its home market or below its cost of production.
Due to the unfair pricing of these imports, Chinese producers and importers were allowed to sell ASF at artificially low prices in the US market, undercutting US-made products and manufacturers.
The US Department of Commerce (DOC), which made the preliminary antidumping determination, calculated a preliminary antidumping margin of 162.47% for all companies.
Antidumping ruling leads to duty on Chinese imports
The DOC will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits on all imports of Chinese ASF in an amount equal to 162.47% of the import’s declared value.
Not only will importers be required to pay the additional 162.47% antidumping duty cash deposit on future entries, but the DOC ruled that 162.47% antidumping duty cash deposits will be owed going back to product imported in the beginning of June 2016.
The DOC ruling is similar to one last November which placed duties on paper being imported from Canada at the request of Madison Paper Industries, which argued that illegal subsidies by foreign governments were allowing those countries to sell competitor products in the US for a fraction of the cost.
Makers of high performance textiles for extreme temperature protection, Auburn Manufacturing, which petitioned the case against the Chinese ASF importers, also used this argument.
US Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, who helped work to get Auburn Manufacturing’s case to the DOC, said the preliminary ruling against the Chinese manufacturers helped to “create a level playing field” for US manufacturers.
“When you have a government, in this case China, that illegally subsidizes their manufacturing such that they’re able to sell their product over here and dump their product here, it hurts Auburn Manufacturing and other companies,” he said.
“The fact that these duties are so high shows you how much these Chinese companies and the Chinese government has violated international law.”
Final determination of DOC investigations are scheduled for mid January, when companies such as Auburn Manufacturing will find out whether the duties will be permanent.
The DOC also announced this month its final antidumping margins calculated on steam activated carbon imported from China.