Global Trade Alert

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted on March 23, 2015 to renew the existing anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders against imports of commodity matchbooks from India. The only two U.S. firms that are still in the business of producing matchbooks seek the imposition of anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) on imports of matchbooks from India. In the CVD portion of their petition, the firms allege that the Indian producers benefit from various benefits and subsidies under India's Export Oriented Unit Scheme, the Export Promotion Capital Goods Scheme, the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme, the Advance License Program, the Duty-Free Import Authorization Scheme, and pre-shipment and post-shipment export financing. They also contend that these matchbooks are sold at less than fair value (based on a comparison with prices in sales to Canada), and that they suffer material injury as a result of this allegedly subsidized and dumped competition. Under U.S. trade-remedy laws, AD and CVD petitions are subject to a four-stage process: a preliminary injury determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), the preliminary and final dumping and subsidy determinations by the International Trade Administration (ITA) of the Department of Commerce, and the USITC's final injury determination. The USITC reached an affirmative preliminary determination on December 12, 2008. In its preliminary CVD determination published on April 6, 2009 the ITA found a total estimated net countervailable subsidy rate of 11.23 percent; in the preliminary AD determination published on June 2, 2009 the ITA found a weighted-average dumping margin of 91.71 percent. The ITA final investigation yielded a margin of 66.07 percent. The USITC reached an affirmative determination in the final injury phase on November 17, 2009, thus leading to the imposition of AD and CVD orders.