BERWICK, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Berwick Offray LLC (“Berwick Offray”) today filed a petition asking the United States to impose antidumping and countervailing duties on certain plastic decorative ribbons imported from the People’s Republic of China. In the petition, which was filed today with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, Berwick Offray says that U.S. manufacturers of plastic decorative ribbons, including ribbons formed into bows, have been materially injured, and are threatened with further material injury, because imports from China are being sold into the U.S. at less than fair value.
As part of the petition, Berwick Offray also asserts that plastic decorative ribbon products imported from China have an unfair pricing advantage over those manufactured in the U.S. because Chinese manufacturers of these products receive improper governmental subsidies. To negate the injurious effects of dumping and unfair governmental subsidies, Berwick Offray has asked the United States to impose antidumping and countervailing duties on plastic decorative ribbons imported into the U.S. from China.
"Our U.S. extruding, slitting and converting facilities are some of the most advanced and efficient in the world," said Christopher Munyan, President of Berwick Offray. "We are able to compete with anyone, including the Chinese, provided that competition takes place on a level playing field. We believe that trade remedies, in the form of duties, are absolutely necessary to negate the effects of dumping from China and to offset the unfair pricing advantage provided by improper governmental subsidies in China. A very significant number of U.S. jobs are at stake.”
The size of the U.S. manufacturing industry impacted by the unfairly priced imports from China is substantial. Berwick Offray estimates that hundreds of U.S. workers are directly involved in the design, manufacture, warehousing, distribution and sale of plastic decorative ribbons manufactured in the U.S.
Berwick Offray says that there has been dramatic growth in the volume of plastic decorative ribbons imported into the U.S. from China, citing, in the first nine months of 2017 alone, an increase of more than 23% in import volume versus the same period last year. Because these products are being dumped into the U.S. market, Berwick Offray says, U.S. manufacturers have experienced declines in shipments, revenues, capacity utilization, wages, employment, profits and investment, and they are threatened with future declines in all of these areas.
The petition covers plastic decorative ribbons having a width (measured at the narrowest span of the ribbon) of less than or equal to four (4) inches, including but not limited to ribbon wound onto itself, a spool, a core or tube (with or without flanges), attached to a card or strip, wound into a keg- or egg-shaped configuration, made into bows, bow-like items, or other shapes or configurations. These products are typically, although not exclusively, made in whole or in part of substrates of polypropylene, and are typically used for gift-packaging or decorative adornment. The petition does not cover ribbons made exclusively of woven plastic threads, ribbons that have metal wire in, on or along the entirety of each of the longitudinal edges of the ribbon, ribbons with an adhesive coating covering the entire span between the longitudinal edges of the ribbon for the length of the ribbon, and certain ribbons in the form of bows having a diameter of less than seven-eighths (7/8) of an inch, or having a diameter of more than sixteen (16) inches.
Berwick Offray is headquartered in Berwick, Pennsylvania, and is a leading U.S. manufacturer of plastic decorative ribbon products, including seasonal and packaging ribbons and bows. These products are made at company-owned production facilities in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Berwick Offray’s plastic decorative ribbon products are used in a variety of gift packaging, decorative, seasonal, floral and industrial applications.
