The director of TLC Associates, Octavio de la Torre Steffano, said the companies in the sector could request the reimbursement of the payments they made to import apples to Mexico because the Ministry of Economy (SE) revoked the high countervailing duties it had imposed on the purchase of this product from the United States.
De la Torre stated that this determination derived from the resolution made by the Mexican authorities regarding the arguments presented by producers and importers, where they stated that although there were elements that support the fact that domestic producers were affected during the period of investigation, the price discrimination on apple imports from the United States were not the cause of the alleged affectation.
According to this antidumping inquiry, he said, the elements required to establish the existence of an unfair international trade practice in terms of the applicable legislation were not met.
He stated that, at the request of various domestic producers of apples, the Ministry of Economy started in 2014 an administrative investigation regarding unfair international trade practices in the form of price discrimination, on apple imports from the United States.
The North American country, he continued, ranked as the second largest producer of apples and covered 4% of global demand. China ranked first with 65% of this production, and Mexico was one of the main destinations for apple exports from the United States with 31%.
So, starting January 7, 2016, the importing companies began paying antidumping duties that ranged from 2.44% to 20.82%, and were seriously affected, said De la Torre.
"The Ministry of Economy published the Preliminary Resolution of the antidumping inquiry in the Official Gazette of January 6, 2016. In it, it decided to continue imposing provisional countervailing duties equivalent to the dumping margins calculated prices to some American producing and exporting companies of up to 20.82% for those who did not appear in court," he said.
However, on June 7, 2016, the same Ministry of Economy published the Final Resolution of its antidumping inquiry where it revoked the provisional countervailing duties, he explained.
As a result, De la Torre said, the companies will no longer pay high tariffs and may request a refund of the payments or deposits of the countervailing duties on apple imports they did between January and June 2016 through TLC Associates.
Source: eltijuanense.com