*EPF508 09/28/01
Commerce Dept. Rules Argentina, China Honey Dumped in U.S.
(Argentine product also subsidized, Commerce says) (370)
By Andrzej Zwaniecki
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- U.S. imports of honey from Argentina and China were dumped on the U.S. market, the U.S. Department of Commerce has ruled.

In its affirmative final determination announced September 27, the department said the dumping margins ranged higher than 183 percent for the Chinese honey.

Imposition of antidumping duties requires final affirmative determinations both from the Commerce Department that dumping occurred and from the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) that the imports injured or threatened U.S. industry.

The final USITC determinations are expected in November. In the meantime the U.S. Customs Service will collect a cash deposit or bond on the subject imports equal to the dumping margin; it would return the money after a negative determination.

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.

The Commerce Department calculated the dumping margins as follows:

-- Argentina: ACA, 38.71 percent; Radix, 32.56 percent; ConAgra 60.67 percent; and all others, 36.59 percent.

-- China: Inner Mongolia, 57.13 percent; Kunshan, 49.75 percent; Zhejiang, 25.88 percent; High Hope, 45.51 percent; Shanghai Eswell, 45.51 percent; Anhui, 45.51 percent; Henan, 45.51 percent; China-wide, 183.80 percent.

In a parallel countervailing duty investigation, the department has also made a final determination that the Argentine government had provided "countervailable subsidies" to producers of honey, calculating the net subsidy rate at 4.53 percent.

Commerce has set a higher rate, 5.85 percent, for the cash deposit or bond required on U.S. imports of Argentine honey because it found that the Argentine subsidies increased after the period of Commerce's investigation.

Imposition of countervailing duties to offset the subsidies also requires an affirmative final injury determination by USITC. A subsidy is a grant conferred on a producer by a government.

In 2000 U.S. imports of honey amounted to $42.9 million from Argentina and $37.8 million from China.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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