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US imposes stiff duties on Chinese blankets
Washington (AFP) Jan 27, 2010 The United States made an initial decision Wednesday to slap stiff duties -- as high as 175 percent -- on woven electric blankets from China on claims they were being dumped at unfairly low prices. The Commerce Department said it had "preliminarily determined" that "Chinese producers/exporters have sold woven electric blankets in the United States at 90.32 to 174.85 percent less than fair value." "As a result of this preliminary determination, Commerce will instruct US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect a cash deposit or bond based on these preliminary rates," the department said in a statement. An electric blanket is used as a warming device, consisting of a shell of woven fabric with a heat-producing wire in which temperature is regulated by thermostats. The move to impose duties on the merchandise came amid rising trade tensions between the United States and China following a series of tit-for-tat trade measures. The department said that from 2006 to 2008, imports of woven electric blankets from China increased 16.8 percent by volume. They were valued at about 29.7 million dollars in 2008. It said it would issue in June a "final determination" on the blankets case, triggered by a petition from a Florida based company, Jarden Consumer Solutions. "If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination, and the US International Trade Commission makes an affirmative final determination that imports of woven electric blankets from China materially injure, or threaten material injury to, the domestic industry, Commerce will issue an antidumping duty order," the department said. The blankets' case is not as large as the December 30 action taken by Washington to impose duties on imported Chinese steel pipes targeted for unfair subsidies. The US International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent federal agency, made a "final decision" on December 31 that the subsidized pipes adversely impacted the domestic steel industry and asked the Commerce Department to impose countervailing duties of up to nearly 16 percent. It was the largest countervailing duty case filed against China, based on the 2.6 billion dollars trade value for the item in 2008.
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