Foreign food firms fined for dumping
The Ministry of Commerce slapped anti-dumping fines on Japanese and Korean exporters of food additives yesterday, citing evidence of serious harm to domestic firms.
Japanese and Korean exporters of nucleotide food additives, used to make monosodium glutamate and soy sauce, must now pay up to 144 per cent extra as a deposit to Chinese customs.
'The dumping by companies from those countries seriously disturbed the market,' a spokesperson from the ministry said.
The case is unusual because the majority of anti-dumping complaints in China involve chemicals. Under World Trade Organisation rules, countries can impose punitive tariffs when there is evidence that foreign players have damaged local industry by selling products below the cost of production.
Guangdong-based Star Lake Bioscience filed the original complaint with the ministry in November last year, citing a slump in net earnings and severe price competition from Japanese and Korean rivals, which it said were selling products below cost in China.
Korea's Daesang Corp was the only firm to make a submission to the ministry during the investigation and the only one to receive a reduced penalty. It must pay a fine equal to 25 per cent of its exports to China. The other companies must pay the full 144 per cent.
'Many of the Japanese companies have moved their production to Thailand and that's why they haven't responded to the investigation,' a Beijing-based anti-dumping lawyer said.
A ministry team will visit Daesang shortly and a final verdict will be given by November. The tariff levels are not expected to change.
China is the target of far more anti-dumping cases than any other country but initiates only a third as many cases as the European Union or the United States.
