*EPF408 07/15/2004
Dumping Duties Set on Ironing Tables, Plastic Bags from China
(Thailand, Malaysia also affected by USITC injury determination) (290)

Washington -- Anti-dumping duties have been imposed on ironing tables and plastic shopping bags from China by affirmative final determinations by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC).

By 6-0 votes July 15, the commission ruled that the imports injured U.S. industry. The ruling imposes anti-dumping duties on plastic bags from Thailand and Malaysia as well.

Imposition of anti-dumping duties requires final affirmative determinations both from the Department of Commerce that dumping occurred and from USITC that the imports injured or threatened U.S. industry.

In its June final determination, the Commerce Department said the dumping margins for the plastic bags ranged up to 77.33 percent for China, 101.74 percent for Malaysia and 122.88 percent for Thailand. U.S. imports of plastic shopping bags in 2003 amounted to $183.8 million from China, $6.9 million from Malaysia and $43.3 million from Thailand.

In its June final determination on ironing tables, the department said the dumping margins for Chinese producers and exporters of ironing tables ranged up to 113.80 percent. U.S. imports of ironing tables from China amounted to approximately $673 million in 2003 and $713 million in 2002.

USITC commissioners also reached an affirmative final determination imposing anti-dumping duties on tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol from China. U.S. imports of this chemical compound in 2003 amounted to less than half a million dollars.

Dumping is the import of goods at a price below the home-market or a third-country price or below the cost of production. A dumping margin represents by how much the fair-value price exceeds the dumped price.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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