The Ministry of Finance has announced that it would slap provisional anti-dumping duties of up to 28.91 percent on rongalite imported from China after the ministry confirmed that the material was dumped at below-market prices in Taiwan and is hurting the local industry.
This marks the fourth anti-dumping action the government has initiated against products from China, including towels, footwear and benzoyl peroxide, underscoring the severity of Chinese dumping.
Taiwan imports around 1,600 tonnes of rongalite every year from China, which is used as an industrial bleaching agent and in textile dying, accounting for about 60 percent of local market share, the ministry said.
The ministry’s custom tariff rate committee resolved on Friday that a preliminary anti-dumping duty of 15.51 percent be levied on rongalite imported from Dongtai Fine Chemical Co (東泰精細化工) in Jiangsu Province’s Wuxi City, and 28.91 percent on the chemical imported from other Chinese companies.
After the provisional anti-dumping measure takes effect, rongalite imports from China will be subject to total custom tariffs of between 18.55 percent and 32.31 percent, including the current import duty of 3.4 percent, the ministry said.
The decision on the temporary anti-dumping measure was made based on preliminary investigation results after Cathay Chemical Works Inc (國泰化工) filed a complaint with the government in February presenting evidence that showed rongalite from China was dumped at belwo-market prices, seriously damaging the local industry.
The ministry said that the provisional anti-dumping duty on Chinese rongalite would be valid for four months, during which time the government would continue its investigation into the case. It is expected to be make a final verdict in early November.
If the government officially decides to slap anti-dumping duties on Chinese rongalite, the penalties will be effective for five years, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the ministry has also decided to impose anti-dumping levies of up to 64.7 percent on Chinese benzoyl peroxide, which is used in acne treatments, to improve flour, to bleach hair and teeth and in manufacturing polyester.
On May 20, the ministry began slapping provisional anti-dumping duties on the chemical imported from China following a preliminary investigation that began last December against imports of Chinese benzoyl peroxide.
However, the penalties will be only applicable to industrial benzoyl peroxide imported from China, the ministry said.
In related news, the US on Tuesday slapped final anti-dumping duties ranging from zero to 247.65 percent on gift box and other types of narrow woven ribbons from China, which it said were unfairly priced.
In addition, the US Commerce Department hit Taiwan, which exports more ribbons to the US than China, with much lower duties of zero to 4.37 percent.
The US imported US$13 million of ribbons from China and US$33.9 million from Taiwan last year.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day