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Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 11:30 AM
Subject: Catch The Buzz Article



The average duty on Argentine honey will be 50%, moving the current price of
$0.55 to about $0.82/lb., and the average duty on Chinese honey will be
about 40%, moving the final price to about $0.72/lb. What this means is that
U.S. honey will begin selling for about $0.65 for dark, and about $0.80 for
light, probably by August.
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Antidumping duties on Argentina and China Announced


The U.S. honey industry, battling for its life against huge amounts of
unfairly traded, low-priced honey from Argentina and China, applauded the
announcement on May 8 of antidumping duties on imports from the two
countires.
As determined by the Dept. of Commerce, the preliminary antidumping duties
for Argentine exporters range between 50% and 61%, and the duties for
Chinese exporters range between 37% and 184%. The duties are now being
imposed on all honey imports from the two named countries. Additionally, for
all but five Chinese exporters, Commerce will retroactively impose
antidumping duties to February because these exporters (and several U.S.
importers) surged imports into the U.S. prior to Commerce's determination in
order to beat the imposition of the duties. (This means that those U.S.
importers with honey already here from these Chinese exporters will be
required to pay this duty on honey they now have on hand.)
This announcement is the next step in an unfair trade action filed with the
Dept. of Commerce and International Trade Commission (ITC) on Sept 29, 2000
by the American Honey Producers Association (AHPA) and the Sioux Honey
Association (SHA).
According to AHPA President Richard Adee, whose organization represents
about 800 domestic beekeepers, "The livelihoods of AHPA members depend on
being able to sell their raw honey at a profit in our own market. The
Commerce Department in essence confirmed what we claimed in our petition:
that Argentine and Chinese honey is being sold here at prices far below the
cost of producing the product in those countries. This is the definition of
dumping, which is against U.S. trade law and the rules of world trade as set
forth by the WTO.
Jerry Probst, President of SHA, said "There is no way the hundreds of
domestic honey producers who belong to the SHA can compete with the Chinese
and Argentina governments and exporters, whose unfair trade practices enable
their honey producers to dominate our market with below cost pricing. We are
counting on the U.S government to right the wrong and save this important
industry. We are gratified with this decision."
Commerce will now begin the final phase of its antidumping duty
investigation. Concurrently, the ITC will begin the final phase of it's
injury investigation. Final determinations from both agencies will be issued
before the end of the year.
The AHPA and the SHA are represented by the Washington, D.C. law firm of
Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC. Michael Coursey heads the legal and economic
team on this case.


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Kim Flottum
Editor, Bee Culture Magazine
http://www.airoot.com/beeculture/index.htm

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