U.S. Department of Commerce: Issues affirmative preliminary antidumping duty determinations on acetone from Singapore and Spain

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WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty (AD) investigations of imports of acetone from Singapore and Spain, finding that exporters from Singapore have dumped acetone in the United States at margins ranging from 66.42 percent to 131.75 percent. Commerce also determined that exporters from Spain have dumped acetone in the United States at margins ranging from 137.39 percent to 171.81 percent.

As a result of today’s decisions, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of acetone from Singapore and Spain based on these preliminary rates.

In 2018, imports of acetone from Singapore and Spain were valued at an estimated $8.5 million and $17 million, respectively.

The petitioner is the Coalition for Acetone Fair Trade. The members of the Coalition for Acetone Fair Trade are AdvanSix Inc. (Parsippany, NJ), Altivia Petrochemicals, LLC (Haverhill, OH), and Olin Corporation (Clayton, MO).

The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current Administration, Commerce has initiated 179 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – this is a 231 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration.

Antidumping and countervailing duty laws provide American businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of the unfair pricing of imports into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 492 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.

Commerce is scheduled to announce the final determinations on or about October 16, 2019.

If Commerce’s final determinations are affirmative, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will be scheduled to make its final injury determinations on or about November 29, 2019. If Commerce makes affirmative final determinations of dumping, and the ITC makes affirmative final injury determinations, Commerce will issue AD orders. If Commerce makes negative final determinations of dumping, or the ITC makes negative final determinations of injury, the investigations will be terminated and no orders will be issued.

Click HERE for a fact sheet on today’s decisions.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Enforcement and Compliance unit within the International Trade Administration is responsible for vigorously enforcing U.S. trade law and does so through an impartial, transparent process that abides by international law and is based on factual evidence provided on the record.

Foreign companies that price their products in the U.S. market below the cost of production or below prices in their home markets are subject to antidumping duties. Companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments, such as grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks, or production inputs, are subject to countervailing duties aimed at directly countering those subsidies.