The US Department of Commerce (DOC) hasissued an affirmative preliminary determination in its antidumping dutyinvestigations, setting initial dumping margins at 52.30 - 76.11percent for Vietnam ’s plastic bags.

According to “businesswire.com” website, the DOC report released onOct. 27 also says that the preliminary dumping margins calculated byitself range from 67.18 percent to 67.62 percent for polyethyleneretail carrier bags from Indonesia and from 28.69 percent to 95.81percent for those from Taiwan .

The DOC's preliminary determination in the antidumping dutyinvestigations of imports of polyethylene retail carrier bags fromIndonesia, Vietnam, and Taiwan was released after the two US companies,namely Hilex Poly Co., LLC, and Superbag Corporation, filed a petitionon March 31 with both the DOC and the US International Trade Commission(ITC), alleging that an industry in the US was materially injured byreason of subsidised plastic bags imported from the three exporters.

Under the preliminary determination, 16 Vietnamese companies will beimposed an anti-dumping duty of 52.30 percent, including Alpha Plastics( Vietnam ) Co., Ltd; Alta Company; Hanoi 27-7 Packaging Co., Ltd(HAPACK); Richway Plastics Vietnam Co., Ltd and VN Plastic IndustriesCo., Ltd.

The Fotai Vietnam Enterprise Corp., Advance Polybag Co., Ltd and allVietnamese PE producers and exporters must pay an anti-dumping tax of76.11 percent while exporting their products to the US .

The DOC is currently scheduled to issue its final determination onJanuary 11, 2010 and the ITC will make its final determination 45 daysafter.

According to ITC data, the values of imports of plastic bags fromVietnam , Indonesia , and Taiwan in 2008 were 79 million USD, 38million USD, and 51 million USD, respectively./.