China Wins End of EU Tariffs on Polyester Fibers

The European Union ended six-year-old tariffs on polyester fibers from China, facilitating EU market access for Chinese exporters such as Far Eastern Polychem Industries Ltd.

The EU decided to remove the duties as high as 49.7 percent on imports from China of polyester staple fibers, which are used in clothes, bed linen and furniture fillings. The levies punished Chinese exporters for selling the material in the EU below cost, a practice known as dumping.

The EU imposed the anti-dumping duties against China in March 2005, when the bloc also applied similar levies on the fibers from South Korea and Saudi Arabia to curb import competition for European manufacturers including Trevira GmbH. The EU let the levies against Korea and Saudi Arabia lapse on schedule in March 2010 while opting to keep the measures against China in place during a probe into whether to renew them.

"The present proceeding should be terminated since the investigation had not brought to light any considerations showing that its termination would not be in the union interest," the 27-nation EU said in a decision today in Brussels. The repeal of the duties will take effect after the decision is published in the EU Official Journal by June 16.

A producers' group called the European Man-Made Fibres Association, which in December 2009 requested a renewal of the duties against China, withdrew its request two months ago as the EU was wrapping up its probe, according to the bloc. Such a step prevents the details of an EU anti-dumping investigation that may be heading to an unfavorable outcome for European producers from being published.