USITC seeks duties on blends not components
26th July 2016
USA: The USITC has voted to impose anti-dumping duties on HFC refrigerant blends from China but not on their individual components.
The votes of the six United States International Trade Commissioners were said to have been unanimous. As a result of the decision, the US Department of Commerce will issue an antidumping duty order on Chinese imports of HFC refrigerant blends but not on imports of HFC components. In addition, the USITC determined that there will be no retroactive antidumping duties imposed on imports of HFC blends prior to February 1, 2016.
The determination affects the HFC blend refrigerants R404A, R407A, R407C, R410A, and R507A. Each of the blends is made up of different proportions of two or three of four individual components – R32, R125, R134a, and R143a. These components, except R134a, have been excluded from anti-dumping duties. R134a is the subject of a separate on-going investigation,.
The initial antidumping petition was filed by a coalition of US-based manufacturers and other interested parties last June. The American Hydrofluorocarbon Coalition claimed that unfairly traded imports of certain HFC blends and components from China were causing material injury to the US domestic fluorochemicals industry.
The group comprises refrigerant producers Honeywell, Chemours (DuPont), Mexichem and Arkema, along with US refrigerant repacker Hudson Technologies and cylinder manufacturers Amtrol and Worthington Cylinders.
The Coalition claimed that imports from China increased by 60% from 2012 to 2014, and continue to increase. It was said that they were being sold at unfairly low prices that consistently undercut the prices of the US producers.
Related stories:
https://www.coolingpost.com/world-news/anti-dumping-duties-unfair/
https://www.coolingpost.com/world-news/chinese-refrigerants-face-us-import-duties/
https://www.coolingpost.com/world-news/us-refrigerant-firms-to-fight-chinese-imports/
