Active Response
The U.S. government has imposed preliminary anti-dumping duties on imports of dioctyl terephthalate (DOTP) from Korea. In this regard, the Korean government held an emergency meeting and decided to actively attract the final decision of “not guilty” of the dumping charges.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on January 30 that it imposed preliminary dumping rates on Korean DOTP manufactured by Aekyung Chemical and LG Chem. DOTP is primarily used as a plasticizer for polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Following the announcement, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) said on the 31st that it held a meeting presided by Deputy Trade Minister Lee In-ho to discuss corresponding measures with Aekyung Chemical, LG Chem and related associations.
Participating industry officials said that the U.S. government assigned preliminary dumping rates of 3.96 percent duties on DOTPs manufactured by Aekyung Chemical and 5.75 percent on LG Chem, which are lower than alleged dumping margins estimated between 23.7 percent and 47.86 percent, but it will not have an immense effect on exports as DOTP accounts for a small portion of the total revenues and exports to the U.S. and they can be exported to other countries.
However, Deputy Trade Minister Lee stressed that the MOTIE needs to jointly strengthen monitoring and actively respond to prepare for the final decision to be made by the U.S. government in June with local offices and industry. In addition, the ministry decided to run the joint public-private response system in order to effectively respond to the U.S. government’s import restrictions in the future.