This past week the U.S. slapped additional preliminary duties on hundreds of millions of dollars of glossy magazine-quality paper from China and Indonesia. The U.S. Commerce Department (DOC), Washington, D.C., USA, said it hit Chinese companies with new duties ranging from 30.82 % to 135.8%. The DOC found that a single rate of 10.62% should apply to all Indonesian coated paper producers.
Appleton Coated LLC, Kimberly, Wis., NewPage Corp., Miamisburg, Ohio, and Sappi Fine Paper North America, Boston, Mass., together with the United Steelworkers (USW), Pittsburg, Pa., immediately commended the DOC for its decisions. The new duties are on top of countervailing duties of 3.92% to 12.83% for China and 17.48% for Indonesia announced in March to offset government subsidies.The U.S. imported $213.3 million of coated paper from China in 2009 and $46.9 million from Indonesia.
The three U.S. companies and the USW filed unfair trade cases on Sept. 23, 2009 with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that certain coated paper from China and Indonesia had been dumped and subsidized resulting in injury to the domestic industry and its employees. The paper products covered by the petitions include coated paper in sheet form used in high-quality writing, printing, and other graphic applications, with a GE brightness rating of 80 or higher and weighing up to 340 gsm.
The decision by the DOC supports the allegations in the petitions that imports from these two countries are being dumped. Dumping occurs when a foreign producer sells into the U.S. market for less than the price that a producer charges in its home market or when its U.S. prices are below the cost to produce the product. The decision also follows a DOC determination on March 1, 2010, that Chinese and Indonesian coated paper producers benefitted from a variety of subsidies and the International Trade Commission's earlier preliminary decision finding that the domestic industry had been injured by Chinese and Indonesian paper imports. In addition, DOC noted that it is reviewing the Petitioners' allegation that undervaluation of China's currency provides a subsidy, as well as other new subsidy allegations in the China subsidy investigation, which could make a difference in the rates assessed in the final determination.
The three companies employ about 6,000 production workers represented by the USW at 20 paper mills operating in seven states.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/