Call for review of EU tariffs on soda ash

Date: 03/10/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

AMERICAN soda ash producers and exporters are filling out questionnaires for the European Commission in an attempt to get the punishing tariffs on their product lifted.

The producers will submit their answers to the Commission next Thursday (10 October) in the hope of speeding up a review of EU anti-dumping duties levied on the product.

At the request of four American soda ash producers and exporters - FMC, General Chemical, OCI and North American Chemical Corporation - the Commission agreed last month to review its anti-dumping duties on disodium carbonate, commonly known as soda ash, imported from the US.

Definitive duties ranging between 4&percent; and 13&percent; were established in October last year, adding still further to the cost of US ash, which was already subject to import tariffs of around 8&percent;.

US exporters argue that the Commission should reconsider the anti-dumping duties now because the Union has changed size since they were calculated.

They say the Commission ignored their requests to take into account the fact that Austria, Finland and Sweden would soon join the EU, thus altering the calculations upon which the anti-dumping duties should be based.

“The Union enlarged while the investigation was pending, and the Commission did not take the three new countries into consideration,” argued a lawyer for one of the US firms involved.

Austria produces soda ash, while Finland and Sweden have “consuming interests”.

The Commission will begin to re-examine the state of the EU soda ash market and the position of soda users later this month, although it has not acknowledged the enlargement argument.

Questionnaires have also been sent to European producers and consumers of soda ash, and the Commission will hold hearings before making its final decision.

European glass makers, including Saint Gobain, Pilkington and Guardian, are likely to argue that they want to use US-made soda ash, which comes from a naturally-occurring mineral called trona. It is attractive to glass makers because it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than ash manufactured by the Solvay process.

US soda ash coming into the EC has been saddled with anti-dumping duties since the 1950s, but they were ended in 1990 after EC glass makers asked the Commission to reconsider them.

US producers hope that European glass makers will come to their rescue again this time.

“They have an interest in having open access to fairly-priced goods,” said an American producer. “I hope they will support us and I think they will.”