The United States International Trade Commission has ruled that
China has dumped plastic bags, ironing boards and
tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol under market prices.
Analysts said the final decision discriminates against Chinese
exporters and is the United States' latest attempt to narrow its
trade deficit with China.
Chinese ironing-board makers face tariffs of as much as 113
percent on US$19 million worth of exports to the United States each
year, the trade commission said in a statement.
Bag manufacturers such as Rally Plastics Co will on average pay
23 percent on the US$184 million worth of plastic shopping bags
shipped to the United States.
Tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol, which is used in industrial
production, is subject to duties of 136.86 percent, the highest of
the three goods.
It is reported the Nantong Huasheng Plastic Goods Co, a private
company in east China's Jiangsu
Province, had a 2.26 percent tariff imposed on it and a
Shenzhen-based bag maker got a zero tariff in an earlier judgment
by the US Department of Commerce.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce and relevant industrial
associations were unavailable for comment yesterday.
Analysts say the ruling will push some Chinese makers out of the
US market.
"This is the latest example of US protectionism of its domestic
industries in a bid to rectify the bilateral trade deficit," said
Liang Yanfen, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of
International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a think-tank of the
ministry.
"It also reflects increasingly tense trade relations as the US
presidential election draws closer," she added.
The United States imposed preliminary duties on Chinese bedroom
furniture and shrimps in the past month.
US sock producers also petitioned to the Bush administration to
impose quotas on the imports of Chinese socks in late June. The US
Commerce Department will decide whether to take up the case on July
20.
(China Daily July 17, 2004)