Business

US Imposes CVD On Fine Denier PSF From India, China

On October 31, 2017, the US Department of Commerce announced affirmative preliminary determinations that producers and exporters of fine denier polyester staple fibre (fine denier PSF) from China and India are being unfairly subsidised by their respective governments.

The affirmative preliminary determinations mean that US Customs and Border Protection will begin collecting countervailing duties (CVD) in the amount equal to the preliminary subsidy rates 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.

The preliminary subsidy rates are as follows:

Three major US polyester fibre producers-DAK Americas LLC (DAK), Nan Ya Plastics Corporation, America (Nan Ya), and Auriga Polymers Inc. (Auriga) - filed petitions with the ITC and the US Department of Commerce (Commerce) on May 31, 2017 alleging that dumped imports of fine denier PSF from China, India, Korea, and Taiwan, and subsidised imports of fine denier PSF from China and India, are causing material injury to the domestic industry.

The US International Trade Commission reached an affirmative preliminary determination on July 14, 2017 that the domestic industry is materially injured by the unfairly trade fine denier PSF imports, allowing the antidumping and countervailing investigations at Commerce to continue.

In addition to the preliminary determinations for subsidy rates announced for China and India, Commerce will issue its preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty investigations involving imports from the subject countries of China, India, Korea, & Taiwan on December 18, 2017.

At that time, preliminary antidumping duty deposits would also be applied for all companies that receive an affirmative antidumping duty margin. The product covered by the petition is fine denier polyester staple fibre, which is a synthetic staple fibre of polyesters measuring less than 3.3 decitex (3 denier) in diameter. It is typically converted either to yarn for weaving or knitting into fabric or to a nonwoven textile prior to the end-use application.