Hubei Dinglong’s headquarters
Hubei Dinglong is among the Chinese manufacturers under investigation by the US Department of Commerce over duty rates and dumping, concerning a chemical produced by the manufacturers that is considered a pesticide and “dangerous goods”.
4-Traders reported on the investigation by the US Department of Commerce, which has reported that “countervailable subsidies are being provided to producers/exporters” of calcium hypochlorite from China, with companies including toner manufacturer Hubei Dinglong.
The chemical, calcium hypochlorite, is covered in the investigation “regardless of form”, and can be sold in a “more dilute” form as bleaching powder. It is registered both as a pesticide and “dangerous goods” by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the UN. US Customs and Border Protection has been asked to “suspend all liquidation” of shipments of the chemical from China that were “entered or withdrawn from warehouse[s] for consumption” on or after the date of the investigation, with the customs agency also asked to “require a cash deposit” for entries of the products.
The Department of Commerce contacted each of the companies it has investigated as well as the Chinese government: other companies included W&W Marketing Corporation and Tianjin Jinbin International Trade Co., Ltd. The Chinese government, Hubei Dinglong and W&W “withheld information requested”, and all four “refused to participate as respondents” to the case.
This led the department to draw “an adverse inference in selecting from among the facts otherwise available to calculate” the countervailable subsidy rate that each company received from the Chinese government, which it calculated as 71.72 percent.
The investigation began in January 2012 and concluded at the end of 2012, with the investigation’s findings covering both the countervailing duty and antidumping duty decisions. The Department of Commerce published notification of the investigation in January this year, and both duty aspects of the investigation “cover the same merchandise”, with final rulings set to be published no later than 29 September 2014.
The case has been passed on to the USITC (United States International Trade Commission), which will make its own ruling on the chemical shipments “within 45 days” of the Department of Commerce’s ruling.
Hubei Dinglong previously acquired Mito in October last year, before signing a working partnership agreement with Discover Imaging Products.