US DOC makes ruling in rubber band duties imported from China

U.S. Department of Commerce has made its final determinations on antidumping and countervailing duties for rubber bands imported from China.

Acting on the petition of Alliance Rubber Co., based in Hot Springs, Ark., the DOC in the antidumping probe assigned a dumping margin of 27.27 percent on the China-wide entity. It found that no company demonstrated it was eligible for a separate rate, according to a fact sheet outlining its findings.

In the countervailing investigation, Commerce assigned a subsidy rate of 125.77 percent for mandatory respondents Graceful Imports & Exports Co. Ltd., Moyoung Trading Co. Ltd. and Ningbo Syloon Imports & Exports Co. Ltd. That was the same rate applied to all other Chinese producers and exporters.Upon publication of the final affirmative antidumping determination, the DOC said it would instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits equal to the applicable final weighted-average dumping margin. And if the ITC determines that the countervailing subsidies caused injury to the domestic industry, Commerce will instruct CBP to resume collection of deposits equal to the applicable subsidy rates.

The DOC ruling came a day after officials from Alliance Rubber and Chicago-based Encore Packaging gave testimony before an International Trade Commission hearing in Washington.

Executives from Alliance argued they were losing business on price, while the president of Encore Packaging said there were other reasons for Alliance losing market share.The ITC is scheduled to make its final determination on Chinese rubber band imports Dec. 28 and on Thai imports March 4, according to a Commerce Department fact sheet.

If the ITC makes affirmative final determinations that Chinese rubber bands "materially injure or threaten material injury to the domestic industry," then Commerce will issue antidumping and countervailing duty orders. If the ITC finds there was no injury, the investigations will be terminated.

Commerce said there were $4.87 million worth of rubber bands imported from China in 2017, up 5 percent from 2016 but down 47.4 percent from 2015.