Asia Pulp & Paper Disappointed in Commerce Department Final Determination, but Expect Trade Case will be Thrown Out at ITC
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) held a hearing in the current case on Sept. 16 and will hold a final vote on Oct. 19. Only an affirmative decision that the domestic industry has been harmed by the subject imports would lead to the imposition of a duty order.
"As demonstrated before the ITC, our actions are not the cause of the domestic industry's problems," Hunley said. "We are not taking business away from the U.S. paper makers. In fact, domestic producers gained market share between 2007 and 2009. During that time we lost our largest U.S. customer to NewPage when NewPage lured them away with lower prices made possible by the enormous 'black liquor' subsidies they received."
The Commerce Department's final determination calls for a 25.2 percent AD/CVD duty rate on APP product from China. No other Chinese company received a lower rate and other Chinese companies were assessed a 153.4 percent rate. For APP product from Indonesia, a duty rate of 38.0 percent was announced.