U.S. Plastics Producers Applaud U.S. Department of Commerce's Affirmative Preliminary Antidumping Duty Determinations on Imports of Polyethylene Terephthalate Resin from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- On April 30, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced preliminary antidumping (AD) determinations that producers and exporters of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan are selling subject merchandise in the United States at less than fair value.  The preliminary AD margins are as follows:

PET Resin Imports from Brazil

PET Resin Imports from Indonesia

PET Resin Imports from Korea

PET Resin Imports from Pakistan

PET Resin Imports from Taiwan

The affirmative preliminary determinations mean that U.S. Customs and Border Protection will begin collecting estimated AD duties in the amount equal to the preliminary AD margins in each country.  Importers will be required to post duty deposits beginning on the date of publication of Commerce's determinations in the Federal Register, in approximately one week. 

For certain Indonesian, Korean, and Taiwanese producers of PET resin, Commerce also made affirmative critical circumstances findings, which it announced on April 20, 2018. Such a finding requires that estimated AD duties must also be retroactively posted for imports from that producer/exporter entering 90 days prior to the date of publication of Commerce's preliminary margin determination in the Federal Register.

"Commerce's affirmative preliminary determinations are a great development for the domestic industry," said Paul Rosenthal, of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, counsel to the domestic producers.  "The imposition of provisional relief will go a long way toward helping the domestic industry being to recover from the injury caused by unfairly traded PET resin imports from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan." 

Commerce is expected to reach its final AD determinations on or around September 17, 2018. 

Background

Four major U.S. plastics producers – DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA, Inc., M&G Polymers USA, LLC, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America – filed petitions with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) on September 26, 2017 alleging that dumped imports of PET resin from Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, and Taiwan are causing material injury to the domestic industry. 

The ITC reached an affirmative preliminary determination on November 13, 2017 that the domestic industry is materially injured by the unfairly trade PET resin imports, allowing the antidumping investigations at Commerce to continue.

The product that is the subject of these investigations is certain polyester terephthalate (PET) resin, which is a large-volume, thermoplastic polyester polymer resin.  PET resin has an intrinsic viscosity (IV) of 0.70 or more, but not more than 0.88, deciliters per gram.  PET resin is primarily sold in bulk form as chips or pellets, which are heated and extruded or molded into plastic bottles, containers, and packaging. The major end-uses for PET resin include beverage bottles, food containers, and packaging for household, cosmetics, automotive, and pharmaceutical products.       

The petitioning companies are DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA, Inc., M&G Polymers USA, LLC, and Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America, represented by Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.

SOURCE Kelley Drye & Warren LLP