Commerce investigates dumped Chinese ribbon imports

The U.S. Commerce Department has taken up antidumping and countervailing duty investigations into decorative ribbon imports from China on behalf of a Pennsylvania manufacturer of these products.    The U.S. Commerce Department has started antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of decorative ribbon imports from China.
   Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells its products in the United States at less than fair value, while countervailable subsidies are given by foreign governments to companies based on their export performance or use of domestic inputs over imports.
   These investigations were initiated based on petitions filed by Berwick Offray of Berwick, Pa., on Dec. 27, 2017. The estimated dumping margins alleged by the petitioner range from 74.34 to 370.04 percent for China. Accoring to Berwick Offray, its in-stock product line includes more than 20,000 SKUs (stock-keeping units) of woven, cut-edge, printed, extruded and hot-stamped ribbon, as well as design accessories.
   The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is scheduled to make its preliminary injury determinations for the petitions by Feb. 12. If the ITC finds that these ribbon imports harm domestic industry, the investigations will continue. Commerce will then announce its preliminary countervailing determination in March and its preliminary antidumping determination in June. If the ITC’s preliminary determinations are negative, the investigations will end, Commerce said.
   Commerce estimated that plastic decorative ribbon imports from China in 2016 were valued at $18.1 million.