U.S. Imposes Duties on Paper From China, Indonesia

Bloomberg-Businessweek, by Mark Drajem, April 29, 2010, 3:54 PM EDT

April 29 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Commerce Department imposed preliminary antidumping duties on $260 million of glossy paper imported from China and Indonesia.

The duties will average 60.27 percent for China and 10.62 percent for Indonesia, the Commerce Department said today in an e-mailed announcement. U.S. Customs will start collecting deposits of those duties on the paper, used in magazine publishing, while the case proceeds to a conclusion this year, the statement said.

NewPage Corp., Appleton Coated LLC and a unit of Sappi Ltd. have been seeking antidumping and countervailing duties of more than 100 percent, citing Chinese and Indonesian policies of debt forgiveness, cheap electricity and low-cost access to timber for domestic producers. Commerce imposed the duties to counter subsidies in March.

Gold East Paper Jiangsu Co. must pay duties of 30.82 percent while Yanzhou Tianzhang Paper Industry Co. was assessed a duty of 89.71 percent, the department said. Chinese companies not listed in the case face a 135.8 percent duty.

Asia Pulp & Paper, a unit of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, must pay the 10.62 percent tariff on paper from Indonesia and 30.82 percent from China, according to a company statement.

“There are no merits to the petitioners’ accusations and restricting competition in the paper industry is un-American and will hurt U.S. printers and all consumers of coated paper products,” Terry Hunley, acting president of Asia Pulp & Paper Americas, said in a statement.

--Editors: Steve Geimann, Romaine Bostick

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Drajem in Washington at mdrajem@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net.