New Antidumping Petitions on Natural Honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam

Introduction

On April 21, 2021, domestic producers filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), seeking antidumping (AD) duties on imports of natural honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam. Petitioners include American Honey Producers Association and the Sioux Honey Association.

Under U.S. law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold in the United States at less than fair value (i.e., “dumped”). Additional duties can be imposed if the DOC determines that imported goods are “dumped” and if the ITC also determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of subject imports.

If the ITC and DOC make preliminary affirmative determinations, U.S. importers will be required to post cash deposits in the amount of the AD duties for all entries on or after the date the DOC’s preliminary determination is published in the Federal Register. The preliminary AD rates can change in the final DOC determination, especially if foreign producers participate fully in the investigations.

Scope

The merchandise covered by these petitions is raw honey. Raw honey is honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling and skimming, or coarse straining. Raw honey has not been filtered to a level that results in the removal of most or all of the pollen. The subject products include all grades, floral sources and colors of raw honey and also includes organic raw honey.

Excluded from the scope is comb honey, or honey that is packaged for retail sale (e.g., in bottles or other retail containers of five pounds or less).

The merchandise subject to this order is currently classifiable under statistical subheading 0409.0000.05, 0409.0000.35, 0409.0000.45, 0409.0000.56, and 0409.0000.65 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS).

Foreign Producers and Exporters of Subject Merchandise

A list of foreign producers and exporters of natural honey, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 1. 

US Importers of Subject Merchandise

A list of U.S. importers of natural honey, as identified in the petition, is provided in Attachment 2.

Alleged Margins of Dumping

Petitioner alleges the following dumping margins:

The DOC generally assigns duties at these alleged dumping rates to exporters that fail to cooperate with the investigation.

Potential Trade Impact

According to official U.S. import statistics, more than 381 million pounds of natural honey valued at almost $300 million was imported into the United States from the subject countries in 2020.

Estimated Schedule of Investigations

Contact Information

For questions about this update, please contact Matthew R. Nicely, Bernd G. Janzen, Spencer S. Griffith, and Yujin K. McNamara or any of the lawyers in our trade remedies practice.