Acting on a complaint brought in May 2003 by the Association of Plastics Manufacturers in Europe (APME, B-1050 Brussels; www.apme.org), the EU Commission has imposed provisional penalty duties on imports of PET from Australia, China and Pakistan. The levy for Australian manufacturers has been set at between 8% and 17% while the Chinese, who are the hardest hit, are to pay 12-29%. Companies in Pakistan are subject to a rate of 14.8%.

In January, British and Italian plastics manufacturers associations warned of the consequences of dumping. PET producers such as DuPont Sabanci Polyester (NL-2132 HP Hoofddorp; www.dupontsa.com) and the Voridian (www.voridian.com) segment of Eastman (Kingsport, Tennessee / USA) said they would cut jobs at their UK sites of Wilton and Workington, respectively, if the EU failed to act.

The Commission meanwhile has begun an investigation into whether Indian PET film producers are circumventing anti-dumping regulations by exporting, via Brazil and Israel, films subject to EU duties levied since 1999 (see PIE 06, 2001). A petition for the investigation was filed at the beginning of January by DuPont Teijin Films (L-1061 Luxembourg; www.dupontteijinfilms.com), Mitsubishi Polyester Film (D-65023 Wiesbaden; www.m-petfilm.com) and Mossi & Ghisolfi (www.mgpolymers.com) subsidiary Nuroll (I-81052 Pignataro Maggiore).

• e-Service:EU regulation (306/2004) on penalty duties on PET from Australia, China and Pakistan as PDF document (246 KB) EU regulation (283/2004) on initiating an investigation into the possible circumvention of anti-dumping measures against imports of PET films from India as PDF document (108 KB)