China, which has entered a 90-day truce in the second trade war with the United States, has escalated its trade dispute with the United States by imposing anti-dumping tariffs of approximately 75% on U.S.-made industrial plastic raw materials. China has also imposed these tariffs on Europe, Japan, and Taiwan, and has already been imposing them on South Korea for the past eight years.
According to the U.S. political media outlet Politico, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced on Sunday that it would implement anti-dumping duties on polyoxymethlene (POM) copolymer imports produced in the U.S., European Union, Japan, and Taiwan, starting from Monday. POM copolymers are high-value industrial plastics that can partially substitute metals like copper and zinc, and is widely used in automotive, electronic, and medical equipment.
The Ministry of Commerce added a 74.9% tariff on U.S.-made POM products, while imposing 34.5%, 35.5%, and 32.6% on products made in the EU, Japan, and Taiwan, respectively. However, some companies received lower rates: Japan’s Asahi Kasei faces a 24.5% duty, while Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group and Polyplastics Taiwan were given 4% and 3.8% rates, respectively. These tariff rates will be maintained for five years.
The anti-dumping investigation into POM copolymers began in May last year at the request of Chinese companies. Preliminary findings released in January indicated evidence of dumping, and the ministry’s final investigation results, released on Sunday, claimed that Chinese industry had been harmed by the dumping from the concerned regions .
Since 2017, China has been imposing anti-dumping tariffs ranging from 6.2% to 34.9% on POM products imported from South Korea, Thailand, and Malaysia. In October 2023, China extended these measures for another five years until October 2028.
Meanwhile, China, which began a second trade war with the United States in February this year, reached a trade agreement with the U.S. this month to significantly reduce retaliatory tariffs and suspend some tariffs for 90 days starting from May 14.
