We expect this story will be of great interest to our clients and friends in the paint and coatings industry:
The European Union plans to drop a threat to impose tariffs on imports from the U.S., China, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine of a chemical used in paints, denying protection for EU producers including Sweden’s Perstorp AB.
The European Commission aims to close an inquiry into whether the five countries’ pentaerythritol exporters, anomg them Wilmington-based Hercules, sold the product in Europe below domestic prices or below the production cost, a practice known as “dumping.” Commission investigators said dumping they detected by some exporters doesn’t justify punitive duties demanded by EU producers to stem sales and profit declines.
“It cannot be concluded that the dumped imports taken in isolation have caused material injury” to the European industry, the commission, the 27-nation EU’s trade authority in Brussels, said in a draft report obtained by Bloomberg News. The report, due to be approved by EU governments next week, recommends that no anti-dumping duties be imposed.
For the full article, see: EU to drop threat of paint-chemical tax.
