Australia initiates investigation into glyphosate dumping

The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) has initiated an investigation, following an application by Nufarm Limited and Accensi Pty Limited, manufacturers of formulated glyphosate in Australia. The application seeks the publication of a dumping duty notice in respect of formulated glyphosate exported to Australia from China.

The application alleges that formulated glyphosate has been exported to Australia from China at prices less than its normal value and that the dumping has caused material injury to the Australian industry.

The application is concerned with imported Glyphosate in all its fully formulated liquid forms including Glyphosate 360, Glyphosate 450 and Glyphosate 570 and the fully formulated dry forms including Glyphosate 680. Glyphosate acid is not the subject of the investigation.

The goods are classified to the tariff code 3808.93.00 (statistical code 48) of Schedule 3 to the Customs Tariff Act 1995. The current rate of duty applicable to the goods imported from China is 5%.

The investigation period is 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011. CBP will examine exports to Australia of the goods during that period to determine whether dumping has occurred. CBP will examine details of the Australian market from 1 January 2008 for injury analysis purposes.

Industry voice:

Chemical company NuFarm, which sells significant quantities of the chemical in Australia, made the complaint. NuFarm claims the China origian formulated glyphosate is being sold below its normal value, and is causing loss to Australian industry.  It claims cheap imports of glyphosate from China resulted in a 20 per cent reduction in Australian production volumes in the 2010/11 financial year. At the same time there had been a 393 per cent increase in imports of the herbicide.

But WA company 4Farmers, which imports the chemical from China, disagrees. 4Farmers's general manager Neil Mortimore says if customs upholds the complaint, farmers may need to prepare for a price rise.  "We don't think there is glyphosate being dumped and if customs do the analysis correctly, we are confident that there won't be any dumping duty that comes about. There's obviously always concern there."

CropLife Australia, the peak body representing the agricultural chemical sector, believes international trade arrangements may have been breached. "The Australian plant science industry is worth more than $1.5 billion to the Australian economy annually and directly employs thousands of people around the country," CropLife Australia head Matthew Cossey said.

"Accordingly, the government needs to ensure that the Australian plant science industry is protected against breaches of international trade rules, such as dumping." Australia's other major maker of crop protection chemicals, Accensi, had also been affected, Mr Cossey said.