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US Throws Steep Duties on China Apple Juice
The US International Trade Commission voted on Monday to impose anti-dumping duties of 51.74 percent on apple juice concentrate imports from China.
The 5-0 ruling came as the House of Representatives was preparing to vote next week on granting permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to China. That vote was still too close to call because of intense opposition from organised labour groups.
The US Apple Association, which supports PNTR, said the ITC's decision as an example of how the United States still will be able to protect itself from ``unfair competition'' under a trade agreement negotiated in 1999 with China.
"This is tremendous news for apple growers and processors," Kraig Naasz, US Apple president, said in a statement.
The US Commerce Department issued its final ruling in the case in April when it determined China was selling apple juice concentrate in the US market at prices up to 51.74 percent below the cost of the production.
The United States imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties of up to nearly 55 percent in November 1999 based on an earlier Commerce Department calculation.
The final anti-dumping duties will go into effect in about two weeks, Naasz said.
A spokeswoman for Senator Slade Gorton said the Washington Republican was "ecstatic" with the ITC ruling. Washington is the largest US apple producing state.
Senator Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, also pressed hard for action in the case.
The apple association blamed the low-priced Chinese juice imports for a 64 percent drop in US juice apples prices between 1995 and 1998. Prices fell to $55 per ton from $153.
Over the same period China's share of the US juice concentrate market rose to 18 percent from 1 percent, the association said.
In its initial petition filed in June 1999 the apple industry asked for anti-dumping duties of a staggering 91 percent.
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