Leading fiber-optic cable manufacturer Corning Inc., is cautiously optimistic that it will obtain a positive outcome in an anti-dumping case brought against it by China, said a top executive.
In June…
Leading fiber-optic cable manufacturer Corning Inc., is cautiously optimistic that it will obtain a positive outcome in an anti-dumping case brought against it by China, said a top executive. In June 2004, China levied anti-dumping duties against Corning and other producers after a preliminary determination that certain fiber-optic products had been dumped in the Chinese market, causing harm to local fiber-optic firms. Corning“s customers have to pay a preliminary duty of 16% of the purchase price to Chinese authorities. “We are cautiously optimistic that the facts are widely known, that this will be a positive outcome for us,” Clark Kinlin, Chief Executive of Greater China at Corning, told the Reuters Asia Technology Summit on 20 September 2004. Kinlin said he expected the ruling sometime between early November 2004 and the end of the year. If the ministry finds Corning not guilty of dumping, the duty paid by the firm“s customers would be refunded, he said. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce began an investigation more than a year ago into Corning and other foreign fiber-optic cable manufacturers from Japan and South Korea, alleging that certain types of cable were being dumped on the Chinese market at prices lower than justified by market conditions. Kinlin said that sales of certain single-mode fiber-optic products exported from the United States, the products targeted by investigators, had gone down after the move, although he declined to give specific figures. The investigation also involves South Korea“s LG Cable and Japanese manufacturers Furukawa Electric Co., Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. and Fujikura Ltd., among others. “Clearly we did not dump. We“ve been in full compliance with the MOC,” Kinlin said. Corning said in June 2004 that, if the Ministry of Commerce“s ruling goes against it, it may be able to appeal within the ministry itself or in the Chinese legal system. Kinlin said that the case had attracted the attention of officials in both countries within the context of China“s entry into the World Trade Organisation. “It is a very popular topic among many government institutions both in the United States and China,” he said.