TAIPEI: The Brazil government has imposed tentative anti-dumping tariffs on butyl methacrylate imports from Taiwan for six months as it was found that the chemicals were being sold at unfairly low prices, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).
Brazil launched an anti-dumping investigation in December 2014 after Basf S.A. filed a petition in October, accusing exporters from Taiwan, Germany and South Africa of dumping butyl methacrylate on the Brazil market.
Based on the initial findings of the investigation, Brazil imposed the tentative tariffs on butyl methacrylate imports from the three countries as a temporary measure.
Butyl methacrylate is a material used in the production of resins, solvents, coatings, adhesives, oil additives, dental products, textile emulsions, leather and paper finishing.
Formosa Plastics Corp. (台塑), one of the Taiwanese exporters, has been asked to pay average duties of US$140.08 per ton of butyl methacrylate exported to Brazil, the MOEA said.
German and South African exporters have been slapped with tariffs of US$526.81 and US$585.37 per ton, respectively, according to the MOEA.
The Brazil government will continue its investigation into the dumping case and is scheduled to issue a final ruling Aug. 24.
Taiwan exported US$13.82 million worth of butyl methacrylate to Brazil in 2012, US$12.22 million in 2013, and US$15.46 million in 2014, which accounted for 0.69 -0.93 percent of its total exports to to the South American country, according to Ministry of Finance data.
