The EU yesterday renewed tariffs against China on a chemical used by plastic-bottle mold makers such as Resilux NV and bottlers including Coca-Cola Co, saying the levies limit the risk of a surge in imports.
The EU reimposed the duties of as much as 184 euros (US$253) a tonne on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) until November 2015 to curb import competition for European producers, including Spain’s Novapet SA.
The levies in force since 2004 aim to prevent Chinese exporters such as Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fibre Co (中國石化儀征化纖) from selling PET in the EU’s 3 billion euros (US$4.1 billion) market below cost.
Chinese producers’ share of the European PET market has fallen to below 1 percent from more than 6 percent in 2003, according to the EU.
“There is a likelihood of recurrence of dumping should measures be repealed,” the 27-nation EU said in a decision in Brussels.
The renewed duties, which will take effect after being published in the Official Journal of the European Union by Nov. 18, are part of broader European trade protection against imports of PET from Asia.
In 2007, the EU reimposed for five years duties on PET from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan to counter dumping, as well as separate levies against India to counter subsidies. A month-and-a-half ago, the bloc imposed five-year anti-subsidy tariffs on PET from Iran, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The inquiry that led to today’s renewal of the anti-dumping duties against China prevented those levies from lapsing as originally planned in August last year. At the time, the EU allowed anti-dumping duties on PET from Australia to expire.
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