ITC Issues Affirmative Preliminary Determination in Trade Case Against Imports of Glass Containers from China

November 8, 2019

Washington, DC– Today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) unanimously found that there is a reasonable indication that the U.S. glass container industry is materially injured or threatened with material injury due to imports of glass containers from China.

The Commission’s vote is a response to petitions filed on September 25, 2019, by the American Glass Packaging Coalition (AGPC), a coalition of producers of food and beverage glass packaging containers in the United States. The case alleges that unfairly dumped and illegally subsidized imports of Chinese glass containers are injuring the U.S. industry.

“The U.S. glass container industry is suffering as a result of dumped and subsidized imports from China, but, after today’s vote, we are one step closer to leveling the playing field in the U.S. market,” said Daniel B. Pickard, counsel to the AGPC and a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley Rein LLP.

On October 15, 2019, the U.S. Department of Commerce initiated formal antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duty investigations into imports of glass containers from China, finding that there is reason to believe that such imports are being sold at dumped and subsidized prices. Commerce is investigating 35 subsidy programs, and the estimated dumping margins for glass containers from China are as high as 255%.

The ITC’s affirmative preliminary injury determination paves the way for Commerce to continue moving forward with its investigations. Without any extensions, Commerce is expected to issue its preliminary CVD determination in December 2019 and its preliminary AD determination in March 2020. If Commerce reaches an affirmative preliminary determination in these cases, provisional AD and CVD duties will be collected based on the preliminary margins calculated by Commerce.

Derick G. Holt, a Wiley Rein senior associate also involved in the case, said, “We are optimistic that the Commission and the Commerce Department will continue to recognize that hardworking Americans in the glass container industry are being injured by China’s unfair trade practices.”