PET Imports To Face Anti-Dumping Duties in the U.S

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): As per market report published by leading analyst, citing sources in U.S. Commerce Department, the country is most likely to impose anti-dumping duties on PET imports from five countries. According to Xavier Cronin, the imports of PET from South Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Brazil are likely to face preliminary duties effective May this year. Incidentally, the imports from these five countries had accounted for 42% of all PET imports by the US during the previous year.

The imposition of duty is further to trade investigations following petitions filed in September last year by domestic PET manufacturers including DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA Inc., M&G Polymers USA LLC and Nan Ya Plastics Group. The petition had alleged that the PET resins from above five countries are being sold at significantly lower than fair prices, thereby causing material injury to the domestic industry.

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According to official U.S. data, the imports of cheaply priced PET resin from the above five countries had recorded tremendous growth during recent years. The imports multiplied by almost four times from 2014 to 2016, growing from 148 million pounds to almost 600 million pounds. The huge volume of imports continued to squeeze the domestic industry, forcing them to reduce the prices, even during the initial half of 2017. This had forced the U.S. PET resin manufacturers to lodge complaint before the Department of Commerce.

The U.S. trade investigations determined that unfair imports from these five countries have severely damaged the domestic industry. The exporters from these five countries will now be required to make cash deposits with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the time of crossing of border.

It must be noted that the US Trade Commission has been collecting anti-dumping duties on imports of PET resin from Canada, China, India and Oman since March 2016.