Taipei, Jan. 20 (CNA) Authorities in South Korea have ruled that Taiwanese petrochemical firms have caused damage to its industry by dumping products, while authorities in Malaysia have also determined damage caused by Taiwanese stainless steel exporters that sold their products at unfairly low prices, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said Saturday.
The MOEA said the Korea Trade Commission (KTC) has suggested an 8.68 percent anti-dumping tariff to be imposed on Taiwan's polyethylene terephthalate or polyester (PET) film makers after an investigation.
PET film is an ingredient of a wide range of products including packaging materials, solar energy panels, adhesive tape and liquid crystal displays, according to the MOEA.
The MOEA said the KTC has suggested that anti-dumping tariffs should be slapped on PET film makers, not only from Taiwan but also from Thailand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance (MOSF).
Firms from Thailand may face anti-dumping tariffs ranging between 3.67 percent and 3.71 percent, while anti-dumping rates to be faced by UAE firms could range between 7.98 percent and 60.95 percent, the MOEA cited data from South Korea as saying.
According to the MOEA, Taiwan serves as the fourth-largest foreign PET film supplier to South Korea after Japan, China and Thailand. Taiwan sold US$16.95 million-worth of PET film in 2015, US$18.44 million in 2016 and US$21.71 million in 2017, taking a 4.22 percent, 4.38 percent and 4.62 percent share, respectively, in the three-year period.
The MOEA said the possible 8.68 percent anti-dumping tariff is expected to affect Taiwan's PET film firms' competitiveness in the South Korean market.
In November 2017, the MOSF imposed a preliminary anti-dumping tariff of 5.23 percent against Taiwan's PET film exporters.
Meanwhile, the MOEA said the Malaysia International Trade and Industry Ministry has suggested imposing anti-dumping tariffs of up to 14.02 percent against Taiwan's cold-rolled stainless steel exporters.
The Malaysian authorities also have suggested anti-dumping tariffs of up to 7.27 percent against South Korean exporters of the same product, along with between 3.66 percent and 23.95 percent against Chinese firms, and tariffs of between 22.86 percent and 111.61 percent against exporters from Thailand, the MOEA said.
The Malaysian authorities are scheduled to come up with a final ruling on the punishments by Feb. 8, the MOEA added.
Taiwan is the largest cold-rolled stainless steel supplier to Malaysia, according to the MOEA.
While Taiwan's cold-rolled stainless steel exports for the first nine months of last year fell 67 percent from a year earlier to US$6.89 million, Taiwan still accounted for a 47 percent share of Malaysia's total imports of the product, the largest among all of the country's importers.
(By Tsai Yi-chu and Frances Huang)
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