The United States is expected to ease industry burdens significantly by reducing the dumping margins and subsidies rates for South Korean epoxy resin primarily used in construction finishing work.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on the 2nd, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the final determination of the dumping margins and subsidies rates for the anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigation of South Korean epoxy resin on the 31st of last month. The U.S. Department of Commerce initially assessed the dumping margins to be between 16.02% and 24.65% during its preliminary determination, but confirmed them to be between 5.68% and 7.6% in the final determination, a reduction of up to 19 percentage points.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has been responding, noting that there was a 'significant administrative error' when the U.S. Department of Commerce released its preliminary anti-dumping determination on November 13th of last year.
A significant administrative error is defined as an error that occurs due to reasons such as incorrect calculations, inaccuracies in copying, and duplication based on U.S. federal regulations when the margin difference exceeds 5 percentage points or decreases by at least 25%.
The Ministry held a meeting with corporations on November 25th of last year to communicate and sent an official letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce on December 2nd of last year, requesting the prompt correction of the error.
The Ministry noted, 'The subsidy rates were determined to be at a low level (1.01% to 1.84%) compared to competing countries in the countervailing duty investigation,' and projected that 'the direct impact on the industry will be limited.'
Specifically, China is facing tariffs of 547.76%, India is facing tariffs of 10.66% to 103.72%, and Taiwan is facing tariffs of 3.38% to 19.13%.
Meanwhile, the applicability of tariffs on epoxy resin is expected to be finalized on May 12th following a determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) regarding industrial damage.
A Ministry official said, 'We will continue to strengthen public-private cooperation to resolve the difficulties our corporations face due to import regulations and will respond vigorously to trade issues.'