Argentine Beekeepers' Magazine

(Espacio Apícola, April 9th, 2022) Finally, as planned, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) published the respective Final Determinations of the anti-dumping investigation filed against honey from Argentina, Brazil, India and Vietnam yesterday.

The DOC, which had already suspended the anti-dumping investigation of Ukrainian honey for 90 days due to the Russian invasion, finally repealed it definitively (see previous note).

In the DOC Final Determination against Argentine honeys they were sanctioned with a higher percentage than in the Preliminary Determination, while the others received lesser penalties according to the following tables:

Company	Final %	Difference with PD
NEXCO S.A.	9,17	+1,33
Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas - ACA	24,67	+0,39
Industrial Haedo	49,44	0
Compañía Inversora Platense - CIPSA	49,44	0
All others	16,92	+0,86

Regarding Brazilian honeys, there were changes published after the Preliminary Determination and finally the Final Determination came with significant surprises, confirming the analysis that we published in Espacio Apícola 134 under the title "Inequities of a Rigged Investigation" (Spanish only). On the one hand, the tax was further reduced for Melbras company, to which the purchase price of the honey was recognized as its "cost of production", due to the fact that they had declared that they were not producers, the same argument that ACA and NEXCO from Argentina maintained without success; and on the other hand, Adverse Facts were fully applied to Apiario Diamante (Supermel) rising its punitive rate, as you can see in this table:

Company	Final %	Difference with PD
Melbras	7,89	0
Apiario Diamante	83,72	+54,11
All others	7,89	-12,3

For sure the DOC will have a paragraph in one of the articles of its regulation to apply, to "all others", an average between the two Argentine companies investigated and not have the same rule with the companies in Brazil.

As we said last November 18, the DOC ratified the "UNITED STATES PREFERS INDIAN HONEY" (Lol). Here the final taxes, significantly better than those of the unbeatable Preliminary Determination:

Company	Final %	Difference with PD
Allied Nat. Products	6,24	0
Ambrosia Nat. Product	5,52	-1,12
Las demás	5,87	-0,61

Finally, regarding the changes made to taxes imposed on Vietnam honeys, one might wonder what objectivity the DOC has had in this and the three preceding cases, which could well justify the annulment of all the proceedings. It must be remembered that Vietnamese companies had been taxed at more than 400%. Here are the duties of this Final Determination and its reduction with respect to the Preliminary one:

Company	Final %	Difference with PD
Ban Me Thuot	61,27	-352,72
Dak Honey	58,74	-352,19
All others	60,03	-352,46

It should be noted that, during the month of March, there were feverish negotiations between the Vietnamese state and the DOC, until finally the DOC received letters from Senator Todd Young and Congresswoman Jackie Walorski, both Republicans for the State of Indiana, and Congressman Gregory Murphy, from North Carolina and also a Republican, explaining interesting reasons why they ask the DOC to "moderate" the sanction on honeys from Vietnam.

We believe that we are not wrong in saying that, with these results, the DOC more than fulfilled the real concerns and expectations of the petitioners. The next and final episode is in the hands of the US - International Trade Commission (ITC) by the end of May.

Fernando L. Esteban

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