US renews anti-dumping tariffs on PE bags

The ITC made the decision to continue imposing high anti-dumping duties of 52.30-76.11% after determining that allowing the tariffs to expire would cause irreparable harm to manufacturers in the US.

The duties, covering bags from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, are subject to review by the ITC every five years. The commission voted 6-0 in favour of extending the duties.

The US plastic bag industry began to focus on cheaper imports around 15 years ago, when the influx of products from Asia more than doubled from 2001 to 2003, according to commission testimony last February from Mark Daniels.

Mr Daniels, who is the Chairman of the American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA) industry group, testified that led to anti-dumping duties imposed against China, Malaysia and Thailand.

That didn’t resolve the problem said Mr Daniels because, “market share was simply shifted to Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam.”

Rapidly increasing low-priced imports from Asia, said Mr Daniels, are “something we [manufactures in the plastics industry] cannot likely endure.”