Three U.S. PET resin makers are appealing a federal decision that declined to place anti-dumping duties on PET imported from five countries.
DAK Americas LLC, Indorama Ventures USA Inc., and Nan Ya Plastics Corp. America filed the appeal Nov. 30 with the U.S. Court of International Trade. The domestic producers have requested the court's review of the U.S. International Trade Commission's Oct. 18 ruling that the U.S. industry was not damaged or threatened by PET imported from Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan.
ITC voted 5-0 not to place anti-dumping duties on PET imported from those nations. The domestic producers' appeal charges that several key findings are not supported by the record compiled by ITC. They also claim that ITC erred by ignoring critical data and failing to address or explain a number of important issues in the case.
The domestic producers "look forward to an opportunity to present these claims to the court, and expect that as a result the ITC will re-evaluate its injury determination," officials said in a Dec. 3 news release. The three firms "remain certain that, ultimately, an affirmative injury determination is warranted," they added.
The ITC decision was made even though the U.S. Department of Commerce had determined that PET resins from those five countries are sold in the U.S. at less than fair value. The domestic PET firms had requested the duties in September 2017 in response to surging volumes of "aggressively priced" PET resin imports from those locations.
Import volume from those countries grew more than four times from 2014 to 2016, climbing from 148 million pounds to almost 600 million pounds. According to the Commerce Department, imports from those countries accounted for about 42 percent of all U.S. PET imports in 2017.
A revised affirmative injury vote by ITC would impose cash deposit requirements on U.S. importers of PET resin from Brazil, Indonesia, South Korea, Pakistan and Taiwan.
The September 2017 duties request was not the first time U.S. PET maker have taken such action. In March 2016, the trade commission voted to place anti-dumping duties on PET resin from Canada, China, India and Oman.