American Bee Journal

AntidumpingInvestigation Update

An American Beekeeping Federation and American Honey Producers Association News Release

T he U.S. International TradeCommission (ITC) has ruled that

U.S. honey producers are being harmedby imports of honey from China.

By a 6-0 vote on Nov. 14, theCommissioners returned their prelimi-nary affirmative determination in theantidumping case the two U.S. nationalbeekeeping organizations have filedagainst Chinese honey imports, sayingthe domestic industry is being injured orthreatened with injury. The ITC willcontinue its investigation of the injuryand will make a final determination asearly as July 10.

"We are extremely gratified that theITC has agreed with us, finding the U.S.honey producers are indeed being injuredby these imports from China," said DavidSundberg, president of the AmericanBeekeeping Federation. "The importsfrom China have been growing for sever-al years, and their prices have beensteadily falling. Processors are buyingimported honey while our members can'tFind buyers for their U.S. honey."

On the other side of the two-prongedinvestigation, the U.S. Department ofCommerce (DOC) is determining thedegree to which the Chinese honey isbeing dumped into the U.S. market.Based on the U.S. honey producers' peti-tion, DOC initiated its investigation onOct. 24, working from an assumptionthat the rate of dumping is as much as49%—the amount of tariff which willhave to be added to bring the Chineseimport price up to fair market value.

"Our producers are caught in the clas-sic price-cost squeeze,"said RichardAdee, president of the American HoneyProducers. "Our costs have been steadilyrising, but the ever cheaper Chineseimports have kept us from getting adecent return. Most of our members areliving off their equity. They are justbarely hanging on. The antidumping tar-iff can't come too soon."

DOC's announcement of the prelimi-nary dumping tariff is scheduled forMarch 20, 1995. On that date, a tempo-rary tariff will become effective pendingthe final determination, which is due onMay 26, 1995. Imported honey fromChina, which clears U.S. Customs afterthat date will be assessed the new tariff.

Imports of honey from China rose

from 45 million pounds in 1991 to 77million pounds in 1993, an increase ofmore than 71 percent. With theincreased volume, the Chinese share ofthe U.S. market rose from 14.8% to25.2%. During this same time, the unitvalue of the imports fell about 20%.

The record imports of Chinese honeyhave continued into 1994 and U.S. honeyproducers have built up a backlog ofhoney. Some of them are still shipping1993 honey and have few prospects forselling their 1994 honey at prices whichwill enable them to stay in business.

"We are urging the Department ofCommerce to render its preliminary find-ing and start collecting the dumping tar-iff at the earliest date possible," saidDonald Schmidt, ABF past president. "Ifthey delay the announcement by 50 days--which is possible if the Chinese ask forit—our producers will be hurt badly. Weneed an early imposition of the tariff tomove the 1994 honey into trade beforethe 1995 honey harvest gets under way."

Dumping Margin Trimmed

While the beekeepers claimed initial-ly that the margin of dumping wasalmost 170%, DOC initiated its investi-gation on a premise that the level ofdumping ranged from 30.95% to 49.24%.In the interim, while DOC was studyingthe sufficiency of the the petition, thepetitioners reduced their claim to a rangeof 121% to 144%.

The margin was reduced to the disal-lowance of certain cost factors submittedby the U.S. beekeepers. In some cases,DOC said the claims were not sufficient-ly substantiated; in other cases, DOCsaid the petitioners had misinterpreteddata. The petitioners will have an oppor-tunity to submit additional data andrecoup part or all of the disallowed costs.

The range of margins comes from twofactors. First, honey in China is pro-duced from both Apis mellifera and Apiscerana honey bees. Each of them havedifferent management costs and differentper colony yields, resulting in differentcosts per pound of honey produced.Also, the petitioners cited two differentcontracts for sales of Chinese honey toU.S. packers. One contract was priced at38 cents per pound; the other, 39 cents.

Comparing the 39 cents contract withthe A. mellifera costs resulted in a mar-gin of 30.96%; the 49.24% margin camefrom comparing the Apis cerana costswith the 38 cents contract.

The cost factors were based on India(where, likewise, both species of bees areused to produce honey). Cost factorsfrom China are not used, since the coun-try has a centrally-controlled economy.The DOC will request Chinese producersand exporters to provide cost informa-tion.

The purpose of the DOC investigationis to determine whether Chinese honey isbeing sold in the United States at pricesbelow what is allowed by U.S. law. Thepurpose of the ITC investigation is todetermine whether U.S. honey producersare being injured or threatened withinjury by such sales.

Injury Now Manifest

Also on Oct. 24, the U.S.International Trade Commission (ITC)staff heard both sides of the issue in astaff conference. Testifying at the con-ference were representat ives of theNational Honey Packers and DealersAssociat ion and the Chinese honeyexporters.

At the ITC, the U.S. producers arguedthat the threat of injury by imports fromChina, which the ITC had found a yearago in the Section 406 case, had nowcome to be actual injury. Michael J.Coursey, attorney for the beekeepers,summarized the petitioners' case in threepoints as he introduced their case:

"First, the domestic industry is now ina materially injured condition...

"Second,.. . the huge volume ofdumped Chinese imports has significant-ly reduced the volume of domestic indus-try sales....

"Third, Chinese prices have led, andcontinue to lead, U.S. honey prices in adownward direction...."

For their part, the opponents of thepetition told the ITC that producers, atbest, still only face a threat of injury andthe reason for the threat of injury is theloss of the price support. "The only rea-son that this case was filed has been theelimination of the beekeepers' subsidy,"said NHPDA attorney Spencer Griffith as

14 American Bee Journal

AVOID BEE DRIFTING

Congratulations to Mrs. Bob Wagnerof Oklahoma. She has captured on filmthe effects of look-alike hives, all in aneat row. The picture is worth theproverbial thousand words. Our atten-tion was directed to the stand, and Iwonder how many readers picked up onthe classical portrait of drift. Note thatthe near hives have a fairly uniformgroup of "hangers-out", aided by thevisual irregularity of the first two tallerhives. As you look down the row, thenumber of bees trails off to none wherethey have been donated to the outboardhives of the stand. At the far end, itappears that there are more bees -enough to obliterate the landing boardrails.

We need to remember that the bees,on approach, do not have tower controlto touchdown, but are on visual all theway in. They could not consistentlyland at the entrance to Number 7 withoutdeveloping counting skills.

This row of hives needs to be bro-kenO into several groups. We usegroups of three. From a distance, thebees can zero in on their group, and in-close, they have no trouble with whichof the three is their own.

Walt WrightElkton, TN

INSIDE WINTERINGCORRECTION

Concerning my article on indoor win-tering which you ran in the Novemberissue, there is one glaring error: under#6 on page 744, it should read "(muchabove 45 degrees F}." It now says "15degrees" which would defeat the purposeof indoor wintering. Looking over thedraft which I sent you, the original says"45", but the copier didn't come out veryclear - guess I should have used a newtypewriter ribbon. My apologies! Someof these beekeepers are sure to catch thisone.

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he opened the opponents' testimony."What has happened since (President

Clinton rejected the ITC recommendationin the Section 406 case)? First, the vol-ume of Chinese imports has declined dra-matically....Second,...prices for Chinesehoney have risen dramatically in recentmonths, prior to the initiation of thiscase, as a result of a new Chinese export

quota system."Representing the producers at the

staff conference were Richard Adee,Jerry Stroope, Jack Meyer, Jr., and LyleJohnston from AHPA; David Sundberg,Bill Merritt, Don Schmidt, DaveHackenberg, and Troy Fore of ABF;Brent Barkman of Barkman Honey; andDr. Roger Hoopingarner of Michigan

State University.Representing the NHPDA were

Dwight Stoller, Nicholas Sargeantson,Mike Ingalls, and Ron Phipps. TheChinese exporters were not present, buttheir attorney read a statement.

Beekeepers,"The next step for us is to raise the additional $150,000 to pursue that case. Beat every bush you can think

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January 1995 15