The most recent development in the antidumping saga is the Diamond Sawblades Manufacturers Coalition's move to lift a stay of its appeal of the dumping duty rates calculated by the Department of Commerce for certain Chinese producers and exporters of diamond sawblades. The DSMC vowed to ensure that those duties are raised to reflect the actual level of dumping attributable to Chinese producers, most notably Beijing Gang Yan Diamond Product Co. ("Gang Yan") and its affiliates.
Dumping deposit rates are as high as 26% for imports from Korea and 164.09% for imports from China. The Commerce Department applied a margin of only 2.82% for Gang Yan and its affiliates, however.
"We believe that Gang Yan should properly be assessed duties at the 164.09% rate and we will ask the CIT to correct this error," says Daniel B. Pickard of Wiley Rein LLP, counsel to the DSMC. He notes the rate currently in effect is merely the duty deposit rate, and not the actual duty amount that will ultimately be owed by importers.
Pickard cautions that, should the DSMC's legal challenge be successful, importers of Chinese sawblades will be responsible for paying the much higher duty rates retroactive to January 2009. "Importers may be bringing in Chinese sawblades at their peril - they could end up getting hit with up to two years of back duties at considerably higher rates than what they had bargained for," he says.
The DSMC originally filed its appeal of the Chinese dumping margin calculation in 2006, however, the litigation was stayed pending the outcome of a separate appeal. Recent action at the U.S. Court of International Trade ("CIT") allows the appeal of the Chinese dumping margin calculations to proceed.
"It was a significant victory for the domestic industry to get the antidumping order issued against unfairly priced imports from China and Korea, but we're not done yet," says Pickard. "Chinese producers like Gang Yan continue to dump merchandise into the United States, owing to improperly calculated antidumping duty rates. The domestic industry will continue to work aggressively to halt these injurious imports, and to ensure that all Chinese producers pay duties equal to their real rate of dumping."
