China said yesterday it has imposed temporary anti-dumping tariffs
on coated art paper imported from the United States, South Korea
and Japan.
This was the result of the first anti-dumping case filed after
China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).
"According to investigations by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and
Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), the State
Economic and Trade Commission (SETC) has decided that these
imported products have hurt domestic firms," MOFTEC said on its
website.
It
said that an anti-dumping duty took effect from yesterday and
related enterprises are required to deposit cash at Chinese
customs.
A
29.65 percent duty was imposed on products made by US firm Westvaco
Corp.
Westvaco merged with Mead earlier this year to form MeadWestvaco,
one of the largest US makers of paper and packaging.
Duties of 5.58 percent to 31.09 percent were imposed on at least
six major South Korean paper makers, including Hansol, Shinho,
Shinmoorim, Hankuk, Kye Sung and Moorim.
Japan's Nippon Paper Industries will have to pay a 23.89 percent
import duty and Oji Paper 56.52 pe cent, the statement added.
Nippon Paper merged with Daishowa Paper Manufacturing in March 2001
to create Japan's largest paper maker, Nippon Unipac Holding.
The statement said it decided to drop anti-dumping charges on
Finnish products because they constituted less than 1.5 percent of
Chinese imports.
Interested parties can appeal to MOFTEC and the SETC within 20
days.
China launched the probe against South Korea, Japan, the United
States and Finland on February 6 on the application of four local
paper manufacturers - East Gold Paper Co Ltd, Shandong Quanlin
Paper Co Ltd, Jiangnan Paper Mill and Wanhao Paper Group Co
Ltd.
The four companies accounted for 65.6 and 56.6 percent of the
country's total output of coated art paper in 2000 and 2001,
according to SETC statistics.
Zhao Wei, an official from the China Paper Industry Association,
said this preliminary success stems from rising awareness of local
enterprises on how to protect their market share through using WTO
rules.
Wang Chuanguo, assistant general manager of Shandong Quanlin Paper,
said this investigation increased their knowledge of related laws
and WTO rules.
Wu
Xingfang, general manager of the Jiangsu-based Gold East, said
filing the application did not aim to close the market to coated
art paper manufacturers from those countries, but sought a level
playing field.
Low prices of coated art paper offered by manufacturers from these
countries are below the normal value and seriously affect the
operation of local companies, whose annual profits dropped by an
average 559.74 percent between 1999 and 2001, as are revealed by
SETC statistics.
Experts reiterated their call to local companies to learn how to
use related WTO rules brought about by China's WTO
entry to protect their interests.
(China Daily November 27, 2002)