US Department of Commerce Imposes Up to 52% Anti-Dumping Duties on Korean PET Sheets

[Asia Economy Reporter Park So-yeon]The United States has made a final decision to impose anti-dumping duties of up to 52% on Korean-made PET sheets.

According to the Washington branch of the Korea International Trade Association on the 24th, the U.S. Department of Commerce recently announced the final determination on anti-dumping duties for Korean-made PET sheets.

The Department of Commerce imposed anti-dumping duties of 52.01% on 13 domestic companies including SK Chemical. This is the same level as the duties imposed in the preliminary determination in February.

As with the preliminary determination, the Department of Commerce claimed that these companies did not provide important information and significantly delayed the investigation process, applying the "Adverse Facts Available" (AFA).

AFA is a measure where the Department of Commerce arbitrarily calculates high duties if it determines that the target companies are not sufficiently cooperating with the investigation, such as by failing to submit data.

However, the Department of Commerce calculated a lower duty rate of 7.19% for one company that cooperated with the investigation, down from 8.02% in the preliminary determination.

In July last year, U.S. PET sheet companies filed a dumping complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), claiming that their domestic industry was harmed by products coming from Korea, Mexico, and Oman.

At that time, U.S. companies argued that anti-dumping duty rates of 44.45% to 52.39% should be imposed on Korean-made PET sheets.

PET sheets refer to extruded PET (polyethylene terephthalate) with thicknesses ranging from 0.18 to 1.14 mm, used for packaging eggs and vegetables.

As of 2018, the import share of Korean-made PET sheets in the U.S. was 12.1%, second only to Oman at 28.2%.

Along with this, the U.S. Department of Commerce also released a preliminary determination on anti-dumping duties for Korean-made Grade 4 cigarettes. Grade 4 cigarettes refer to rod-shaped cigarettes with lengths of 7.0 to 12.0 cm and diameters of 1.3 cm or less.

The Department of Commerce preliminarily determined a duty rate of 5.48% on target companies including KT&G, stating that Korean-made Grade 4 cigarettes are being sold at prices lower than normal value.

Earlier, in December last year, the U.S. Tobacco Producers Association petitioned for an anti-dumping investigation, claiming that Korean companies exported cigarettes at unfair prices, harming the domestic industry.

The Department of Commerce is expected to issue a final determination within 120 days from the date of the preliminary determination announcement.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.