Anti-dumping duties on car batteries axed

By FIONA ROTHERHAM

Commerce Minister Paul Swain has revoked anti-dumping duties on car batteries from Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan in place since 1991.

Commerce Ministry trade remedies investigators recommended lifting the duties on lead acid batteries after failing to be satisfied that local manufacturers were suffering financially from dumping.

Anti-dumping duties are permitted under World Trade Organisation rules on imports sold at below the cost of production. Only 10 product types fall under the provisions in New Zealand.

The country's leading car battery supplier, GNB Technologies, claims the decision will lead to a rash of dumping.

The ministry review team found that although it was relatively easy to set up as an importer in New Zealand, existing importers had limited capacity to handle a significant increase in volume.

The review was initiated by GNB last May, one month before the duties were due to expire.

Anti-dumping duties expire after five years unless what is known as a "sunset" review determines whether they should continue.

GNB, a division of Australian-owned Pacific Dunlop, and Century are the only two local car battery manufacturers. Around 500,000 car batteries are sold here each year and about one-fifth are thought to be imported.

Of the five countries involved in the latest review, Taiwan and Singapore no longer export here.

Korea and Malaysia dominate imports, which are on the rise.

It was found that only batteries from PT Nipress in Indonesia were still being dumped in New Zealand.

But the amount - 0.4 per cent - of the total imports was so low that any impact was deemed negligible.

In a separate ministry review last year into Chinese car battery imports, dumping was found to be taking place.

But the amount, 2.5 per cent of total imports, fell under the WTO agreement on the minimum percentage of 3 per cent of total imports where dumping is found to cause material injury to local producers.

A review is also underway into Thai imports. An interim report has found that dumping is occurring, although the amount is less than half a per cent of total imports.

Thai batteries were found to be undercutting Korean import prices by up to 26.4 per cent.

All three reviews were initiated by GNB, which said the low prices on the Chinese and Thai batteries not covered by duties indicated what other importers would charge now all duties were removed.