Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, November 25th, 2021) The US Department of Commerce investigation initiated last May into a demand for anti-dumping actions against raw honey imported from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam, as we described it in detail in our issue #132 of Espacio Apícola, reached its Preliminary Determination on November 17 and was published by the Federal Register on Tuesday 23.

With this publication, the taxes imposed, already reported by us on November 18 are confirmed, and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is instructed to suspend liquidation of entries of subject merchandise and to collect a cash deposit for each import of honey equivalent to the preliminary rate determined for each honey exporting company from each country investigated, since this publication.

This publication also includes the situation of the last two demands filed by the petitioners in the framework of the main investigation. A demand for alleged fiscal disorders that would induce a downward price of honey in the Argentine market, for which they alleged the incorporation into the investigation of the figure of the Particular Market Situation (PMS); and another demand asking for retroactive tariff considering that Argentine exporting companies were advancing exports to evade the payment of tariffs, in what is known and described as "Critical Circumstances".

Regarding a Particular Market Situations (PMS), alleged by the petitioners in an attempt to associate the situation previously analyzed and judged by the DOC against the importation of biodiesel from Argentina, the DOC concluded that in the case of honey imported from Argentina, no there is such a particular situation. As we analyzed in Espacio Apícola 133, the presentation made by the Argentine Government, accompanying the respective presentations of the companies, and which we published in full, was very clear about the objectives of the Argentine Government's fiscal policy with regard to export duties and in the explanation of different conditions with respect to the biodiesel.

The Affirmative Preliminary Determination against Argentine honey also confirmed the Affirmative Preliminary Determination of Critical Circumstances. This demand had also been asked in the case of honeys from Brazil and India. In the case of Brazil, there is no reference to the issue in the publication of the Federal Register, while in the case of India it is made explicit that no critical circumstances were generated. But in the case of honey from Argentina, an Affirmative Preliminary Determination of Critical Circumstances was promulgated. For this determination, exports of Argentine honey were compared, in volume and price, between December 2020 and April 2021 with those made between May 2021 and September 2021. In that period, the exports of NEXCO S.A. did not reach a difference whose determination threshold is 15%, while in the case of ACA, Industrial Haedo, CIPSA and the others, they did reach that threshold, for which the DOC considers, according the statutes of the corresponding Act, which had a "massive increase" in that period. We have not yet found specific penalties and we believe that this Determination will be the subject of new allegations and discussion in order to determine if retroactive tariffs will be charged and in what period.

Everything seems to be tailored to the petitioners, who have in the Argentine honey their main competition in the US bottled honey market. Some gossipers even say that Joe will celebrate Thanksgiving dinner explaining how to comfort the friends of the Argentine beekeeping establishment, just as he did with his peer, Emanuel, when Joe sent him to eat his submarines for Autralia ... the Comment says dinner will take place somewhere in Dakota; cooperative members would come there from Iowa with a few turkeys glazed with Indian honey. In these comments, it is assumed that the president will bring pins for everyone in this celebration, hoping that this DOC Preliminary Determination will change the Republican scenery of the midwest for the Senate elections, next year. Oh, with these gossipers!

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