Published on April 5, 2018

China has decided to impose tariffs on 106 items originating in the United States, the Ministry of Commerce announced. The government has chosen to add a tariff of 25 percent to 106 goods originating in the United States across 14 categories, including petrochemical productsbut the implementation date has not been published yet.

China had earlier announced several new ADD rulings on different chemicals in the first quarter, including bisphenol A (BPA) and styrene monomer (SM), with another five awaiting a final decision by the country’s commerce ministry sometime this year. (please see table below)

The country’s Ministry of Commerce on 4 April raised the anti-dumping duties (ADDs) for butyl glycol (BG) and butyl di-glycol (BDG) originating from the US and the EU. China-based phenol traders said that the probe has not caused any short-term panic in the market but will result in a short-term boost for domestic prices.

Apart from phenol, China has also filed a new anti-dumping case on ortho dichlorobenzene (ODCB) imports from Japan and India this year, while five other chemicals currently under probe are pending a ruling this year.