Korea Will Implement an Anti-Dumping Tariff Rate Ranging From 9.14% to 29.42%

On June 2nd, 2011, the Korea Trade Commission announced a verdict that Korea will implement an anti-dumping tariff rate ranging from 9.14% to 29.42% on China's tile suppliers as well as 16.07% on other ceramic suppliers. Furthermore, the tariff rate will be kept for as long as 3 years. More than 300 Foshan ceramic enterprises are involved in this anti-dumping investigation, among which GENI Ceramics, New Zhong Yuan Ceramics, and Louis Valentino Porcellana have to bear the highest tax rate of 29.41%. This is the first anti-dumpling investigation since 2005. This time, however, the highest rate is four times as much as the rate of 2005. The final decision will be made on July, 12. To China’s ceramic export sector, this investigation has added insult into their injury. In recent years, China's ceramic industry has gone through anti-dumping investigation one after another. For Korea alone, after it exerted an anti-dumping investigation on China's tile export sector in 2005, the year witnessed a sharp drop in Guangdong tile export to Korea. The total export volume of tiles was 8.29 million square meters, dropped by34%; the total export value was 26.97 million dollars, dropped by 26%. Korea is the No.1 export country of Chinese ceramic products, taking up nearly 20% of the total value. Due to the fact that the export value of Foshan accounts for over 70% of China's total value, once the tariff rate is finally confirmed, China’s tile export sector, even the whole ceramic sector will suffer from a heavy blow. There is no other saying that can better describe the current situation of the ceramic industry in China than this one— It never rains but it pours. The slowdown of domestic real estate market has imposed an obvious impact on the ceramic industry. Together with the anti-dumping tariffs one after another, the slump industry will have to gone through the insult added on the injury. In spite of world economic downturn and trade protectionism in foreign countries, the major cause of the anti-dumping investigations lies in Chinese ceramic industry itself. For a long time, "made in China" indicates products with low-end brands and bad quality. Mr. Huang Xinhong, vice President of China Ceramics Industry Association (CCIA), thinks that China's ceramic industry needs to reflect on itself because the days controlled by scale and quantity are gone forever. If Chinese ceramic sector wants to solve the problem of anti-dumping investigation fundamentally, it needs to improve the product quality and additional value, needs to create a world brand for itself. Therefore, China's ceramic industry can change its international image and build a bright future. Source: fstcb.com