ITA Requested to Initiate AD Anticircumvention/Scope Inquiries on Palm and/or Vegetable-Based Wax Candles from China
On October 12, 2004, the National Candle Association (NCA) filed two separate requests with the International Trade Administration (ITA) for determinations that certain candles produced in China containing palm and/or vegetable-based waxes and exported to the U.S. illegally circumvent the antidumping (AD) duty order on petroleum wax candles from China (A-570-504) on the basis of (1) later-developed merchandise; or (2) minor alterations.
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Later-developed merchandise. In one request, NCA argues that candles containing palm or vegetable-based waxes as the majority ingredient were not commercially "developed" at the time of the original AD investigation and, therefore, are later-developed products and properly fall within the scope of the AD duty order.
Minor alternations. In its other request, NCA alleges that foreign producers in China and domestic importers are altering existing petroleum wax candles for the sole purpose of circumventing the AD duty order. According to NCA, the altered candles properly fall within the scope of the AD duty order, even though the alterations may remove them from the AD duty order's literal scope.
ITA's determinations on whether to institute anticircumvention/scope inquiries due late November 2004.ITA sources state that they will make a determination as to whether to institute these anticircumvention/scope inquiries within 45 days of their receipt (i.e., late November 2004).
ITA has 300 days to issue final determinations. According to 19 USC 351.225(f)(5), the ITA will issue a final ruling normally within 300 days from the date of the initiation of the anticircumvention/scope inquiry.
(The ITA has issued numerous scope rulings on the AD order on petroleum wax candles from China, which are available at http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/candles-prc-scope/index.html. In one of these scope rulings (http://ia.ita.doc.gov/download/candles-prc-scope/candles/20021212-leaderlight.pdf) the ITA ruled that, consistent with its past practice on candles in which petroleum (paraffin) or petroleum-based products were not the majority component, and per the International Trade Commission's definition that petroleum wax candles are those composed of over 50% petroleum, the palm oil/petroleum wax candles subject to the scope ruling were outside the scope of the AD duty order because their petroleum-based content was less than 50%.)