USA International Trade Commission makes preliminary determination on unfairly-traded PET imports

27-Apr-15

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) made a unanimous preliminary determination today that unfairly-traded imports of polyethylene terephthalate resin (PET resin) are causing injury to US producers. The preliminary injury determination means that the cases against imports from Canada, China, India and Oman will proceed. DAK Americas LLC, M&G Chemicals and Nan Ya Plastics Corp. America, filed the petitions on March 10, 2015, charging that dumped imports of PET resin from Canada, China, India and Oman were causing material injury to the domestic injury. The domestic industry also filed countervailing duty petitions alleging that the governments of China, India and Oman provided significant subsidies to PET resin producers in each country. As a result of the Commission's affirmative determination, the U.S. Department of Commerce will continue to conduct its investigations on imports of these products, with its preliminary countervailing duty determinations due on or about June 3, 2015, and its preliminary antidumping duty determinations due on or about August 17, 2015. "This affirmative decision is an important first step in remedying the devastating injury that the flood of unfairly-traded imports of PET resin have had on the domestic industry," commented Paul Rosenthal, of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, the lead trade counsel to the petitioners. Imports from the four target countries surged from 500 mln lbs in 2012 to 750 mln lbs in 2014. The domestic industry stated that this import surge was driven by low import pricing that caused U.S. producers to lose significant sales and profits.