The International Trade Commission under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has reached consensus that it is still necessary for Taiwan to levy anti-dumping duties on coated art paper imported from Japan to protect domestic products from unfair competition.

The commission announced its findings on Thursday after conducting a review on behalf of the Ministry of Finance in accordance with a ruling by the Supreme Administrative Court in June that called for a re-evaluation of the impact of imported coated art paper from Japan on local manufacturers of the same type of product.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruling was made after the finance ministry appealed a decision by the Taipei High Administrative Court in favor of an importer of paper products, requiring the ministry to cease levying anti-dumping duties on imported coated art paper from Japan.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs commission said its members reached the conclusion that lifting the anti-dumping duties would again cause harm to locally produced coated art paper products, and that the commission would submit its observation for the finance ministry to make its final decision.

Taiwan imposed anti-dumping duties on coated art paper from Japan in July 2000 at rates between 8 percent and 44 percent.

Because China also imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 71 percent on the same product from Japan in August 2003, members of the commission said they feared that lifting the anti-dumping duties now would turn Taiwan into a major dumping ground for Japanese overproduction.

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA

Saturday, Apr 12, 2008, Page 11

Source: www.taipeitimes.com