Taiwan to impose anti-dumping tariffs on certain ceramic tile suppliers

Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) Taiwan will impose anti-dumping tariffs on ceramic tile suppliers from India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia for five years, after it found they have caused material injury to the domestic industry by selling their products at unfairly low prices, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday.

The tariffs will be levied from Oct. 4, 2021 to Oct. 3, 2026, the MOF said in a statement.

Suppliers from India will face a tariff of 20.07 percent, although there are three suppliers from the country that will be exempted, and those from Vietnam will face a tariff of 2.23 percent to 19.41 percent, with six suppliers exempted.

At the same time, Taiwan will impose tariffs of 16.83 percent on suppliers from Indonesia and 7.78 percent on those from Malaysia, the MOF said.

The MOF and the International Trade Commission (ITC) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs launched an anti-dumping investigation into ceramic tile imports from the four countries in October 2020, after the Taiwan Ceramic Industries Association and three domestic companies filed a petition.

According to an investigation report released by the ITC earlier this month, the combined market share of India, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia in Taiwan's ceramic tile sector rose from 25.9 percent in 2016 to 38.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, as they continued to cut prices and increase shipments to Taiwan.

Meanwhile, local ceramic tile makers have suffered a decline in market share annually for the past five years, from 58 percent in 2016 to 44.3 percent in the first quarter of this year, the ITC said.

As a result of the decline, Taiwanese ceramic tile makers have seen their production capacity utilization hurt significantly, inventories grow sharply and return on investment drop to only 1 percent, the ITC said.

Citing the figures as evidence, the ITC concluded that ceramic tile imports from the four countries did have an adverse material impact on Taiwan's industry, and they referred their findings to the MOF to make a final decision on imposing anti-dumping tariffs.