US ITC rules in favour of India, Thai PET producers

19 April 2005 20:23  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (CNI)--The US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled Tuesday that US producers of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resins are not “materially injured” by PET imports from India, Indonesia and Thailand.

 

Consequently, anti-dumping duties temporarily imposed by the US Department of Commerce (DoC) against PET from those nations are expected to be lifted within a few days.

 

The ITC held that US PET producers are “not materially injured or threatened with material injury” by those imports, even though PET imports from India are subsidized and PET resin sales in the US by all three countries are “at less than fair value.”

 

Apparently central to the ITC’s refusal to find a material injury is market data cited by ITC showing US consumption of PET bottle resin in 2004 at 2.36m tonne/year while domestic US producers generated only 1.95m tonne/year of the resin last year.

 

US PET producers, including Eastman Chemical, Wellman and DAK Americas, had sought antidumping duties against PET from the three countries in a case first filed in March 2004.

 

Officials at Eastman and other US producers could not be reached immediately for comment.

 

But Susan Esserman, the attorney who represented Reliance Industries, the largest PET producer in India, said in a statement: “This is a just victory for Indian, Thai and Indonesian producers of PET resin.  It is a prime example of how constructive engagement in US trade proceedings can yield positive results.”

By: Joe Kamalick
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