Now that the USITC has decided to proceed on this, the US Department of Commerce (DoC) is to move forward in investigating if France, Spain and Japan have dumped methionine in the US. The DoC is expected to announce its preliminary findings in January next year.
Both investigations follow a petition from Novus in relation to antidumping claims that the feed supplement producer filed on July 29. It requested that the USITC and the DoC formally investigate methionine imports from France, Spain and Japan consistent with the World Trade Organization (WTO) antidumping agreement.
The Novus petition included information claiming a reported increase in methionine imports from 2017-2019 that allegedly led to substantial price depression and harm to the domestic methionine industry in the US.
The company maintained that imports of methionine from the three countries were priced substantially lower than domestic producers’ shipments.
“Fair and competitive trade practices are critical to the health of our industry,” said Ed Galo, Novus vice president and chief commercial officer – Americas. “This decision shows that the evidence Novus presented is worth investigating further to ensure the domestic industry is protected from unfair trade practices.”
The final phase of ITC’s investigation is expected to begin around March 2021 and will conclude with its final ruling on whether there was injury or threat of injury to the US methionine industry from unfairly traded methionine imports, said Novus.
If the ITC reaches a final determination that low-priced methionine imports have caused injury to the domestic industry, and if the DoC rules that France, Spain and Japan illegally dumped foreign products, importers from those countries may have to pay a duty on methionine imports, which would be collected by the government as a tax, it added.
Methionine is a necessary feed ingredient for commercial livestock, poultry, and aquaculture diets.
