McLean, Va. – The U.S. apple industry today requested that the U.S. government increase antidumping duties on imported apple juice concentrate from the People’s Republic of China, charging that Chinese concentrate suppliers are still illegally dumping their product in the U.S. market and harming U.S. producers.

Specifically, the industry formally requested the U.S. Department of Commerce to conduct an administrative review of Chinese apple-juice concentrate suppliers assigned individual antidumping duty rates in June 2000. The U.S. apple industry requested this action to stem the tide of a renewed flood of unfairly priced imported Chinese concentrate by levying significantly higher antidumping duties and assessing those duties retroactively.

“America’s apple growers and processors are again being menaced by the price-cutting practices of Chinese apple juice-concentrate suppliers,” said U.S. Apple Association (USApple) President and CEO Kraig R. Naasz, whose group spearheaded the apple industry’s antidumping complaint against. “We have suffered severe losses due to dumped imports of Chinese concentrate, and we intend to avail ourselves of every legal opportunity to safeguard our livelihoods against the abuse of our nation’s trade laws.”

The U.S. government levied antidumping duties of up to 52 percent on Chinese concentrate imports in May 2000, following the Commerce Department and U.S. International Trade Commission’s rulings that Chinese concentrate was sold in the U.S. market at prices below production costs, causing economic harm to U.S. concentrate producers – a practice called dumping. While most Chinese concentrate suppliers were subjected to the 52 percent duty, several suppliers were assigned individual duty rates ranging from 9 percent to 28 percent, based on the margin by which their companies’ sales were made below their cost of production.

In accordance with U.S. and international trade law, U.S. concentrate producers may request a review of subsequent sales of Chinese concentrate to the U.S. market to determine if they occurred at prices even further below the current cost of production. The Commerce Department is required upon request to examine and recalculate the actual margin of dumping for all shipments from each supplier since Nov. 23, 1999, the date on which the Commerce Department announced its preliminary dumping decision against Chinese concentrate suppliers.

If, as expected, the antidumping duties paid on imports of Chinese concentrate between Nov. 23, 1999, and May 31, 2001, are insufficient to cover the recalculated margin of dumping, importers will be required to pay the difference, with interest, on every affected shipment since Nov. 23, 1999. The newly calculated dumping margin would then become the applicable antidumping duty rate for imports entering the United States from the date on which the administrative review is completed forward.

The Commerce Department is likely to announce the preliminary results of its administrative review on or about March 1, 2002, and the final results by June 2002.

China Resorts to Renewed Dumping
In requesting the administrative review, the apple industry charged that Chinese concentrate suppliers have again resorted to dumping their product on the U.S. market, citing recent Chinese concentrate prices as evidence.

China re-emerged as the leading supplier of apple juice concentrate to the U.S. market this spring, with imports of nearly 15 million single strength equivalent (SSE) gallons through March 2001. The current price of Chinese concentrate is $3.75 to $4.00 a gallon, according to the Food Institute, which is the same price at which Chinese concentrate was being sold in the U.S. market when the U.S. apple industry decided to pursue an antidumping complaint three years ago.

U.S. apple processors and growers have been devastated in recent years by a flood of unfairly priced concentrate imports from China, which displaced sales of U.S.-produced concentrate and U.S.-grown juice apples. While antidumping duties of up to 52 percent on most suppliers have helped to offset the dumping, China’s recent price-cutting practices and resulting increased imports have renewed the damage to U.S. producers.

Dumping Duties Were Working
Imports of Chinese concentrate had dropped 31 percent after the industry filed its antidumping complaint in June 1999, from 53.8 million SSE gallons in 1998 to 37.3 million SSE gallons in 1999. While the volume of imported Chinese concentrate rebounded in 2000 to 50.2 million SSE gallons – an increase of 35 percent compared to 1999, but still 7 percent below 1998 – the value had increased substantially. The average value of Chinese concentrate was $4.14 per gallon in 1998, $5.81 per gallon in 1999 and $6.29 per gallon in 2000 – reflecting the upward impact of antidumping duties on the price of Chinese concentrate.

Prior to the antidumping case, U.S. concentrate producers were forced to slash their prices, and to drastically reduce the price they paid to U.S. growers for juice apples. Imports of Chinese concentrate increased by 1,200 percent between 1995 and 1998. During that same time period, the average price of Chinese concentrate imports declined by 53 percent from $7.65 per gallon in 1995 to a low-water mark of $3.57 per gallon in 1998.

The average price for U.S. apple juice concentrate fell by more than 50 percent between 1995 and 1998, while the average price received by U.S. growers for juice apples fell by 64 percent, from $153 per ton in 1995 to $55 per ton in 1998. U.S. apple growers have suffered losses of $1.5 billion since 1996 – including an estimated $500 million this year alone – due in part to a decline in juice-apple prices, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics.

Antidumping Background
An industry-wide coalition of apple associations, processors and concentrators administered by USApple, is overseeing the apple industry’s antidumping initiative. The Coalition for Fair Apple-Juice Concentrate Trade (FACT) filed its initial antidumping complaint and administrative review request on behalf of the following domestic concentrate producers: Coloma Frozen Foods, Inc., Coloma, Mich.; Green Valley Packers, Arvin, Calif.; Knouse Foods Cooperative, Inc., Peach Glen, Pa.; Mason County Fruit Packers Cooperative, Inc., Ludington, Mich.; and Tree Top, Inc., Selah, Wash.

For more information, please contact USApple at (703) 442-8850.

The U.S. Apple Association (USApple) is the national trade association representing all segments of the apple industry. Members include 40 state apple associations representing 9,000 apple growers throughout the country, as well as nearly 500 individual firms involved in the apple business. USApple’s mission is to provide the means for all segments of the U.S. apple industry to join in appropriate collective efforts to profitably produce and market apples and apple products.