Commerce readies countervailing duties on Spanish olives

The U.S. Commerce Department will begin assessing countervailing duties on imports of ripe olives from Spain, the department announced Tuesday.    The U.S. Commerce Department will begin assessing countervailing duties on imports of ripe olives from Spain, the department announced Tuesday.
   Duties are based on Commerce’s findings that Spanish olive producers receive government subsidies based on their export performance or use of domestic materials in their products over imports.
   Commerce calculated a preliminary subsidy rate of 2.31 percent for Aceitunas Guadalquivir S.L.U.; 2.47 percent for Agro Sevilla Aceitunas S.Coop.And.; and 7.24 percent for Angel Camacho Alimentacion S.L. All other Spanish olive producers and exporters were assigned a preliminary subsidy rate of 4.47 percent.
   The department will now instruct Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to require cash deposits based on these preliminary rates.
   The petitioner for this countervailing duty investigation is the Coalition for Fair Trade in Ripe Olives, whose members include BellCarter Foods Inc. and Musco Family Olive Co., both of California.
   According to Commerce, imports of ripe of olives from Spain in 2016 were valued at $70.9 million. 
   Commerce is currently scheduled to announce its final countervailing duty determination for this investigation by April 4, 2018. If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue a final countervailing duty order. However, if Commerce makes a negative final determination or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will end and no countervailing duty order will be issued.