U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty (AD) investigations of imports of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin from China and India.

“The dumping of goods below market value in the United States is something the Trump Administration takes very seriously,” said Secretary Ross. “The Department of Commerce will continue to stand up for American workers and business’s in order to ensure that everyone trades on a level playing field.”

Commerce preliminarily determined that exporters from China and India have sold PTFE resin in the United States at 69.34 to 208.16 percent and 18.49 percent less than fair value, respectively.

As a result of today’s decision, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of imports of PTFE resin from China and India based on these preliminary rates.

In 2016, imports of PTFE resin from China and India were valued at an estimated $24.6 million and $14.3 million, respectively.

The petitioner is The Chemours Company FC LLC (Wilmington, DE).

Enforcement of U.S. trade law is a prime focus of the Trump administration. Commerce has initiated 112 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations since the beginning of the Trump administration. This is 75 percent more than the 64 initiations in the last 466 days of the previous administration.

The AD law provides U.S. businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of unfair pricing of imports into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 430 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.

Commerce is scheduled to announce the final determinations in these investigations on September 18, 2018.

If Commerce makes affirmative final determinations of dumping and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) makes affirmative final injury determinations, Commerce will issue AD orders. If Commerce makes negative final determinations of dumping or the ITC makes negative final determinations of injury, the investigations will be terminated and no orders will be issued.