FOR INFORMATION CONTACT: William G. Kiesling – (570) 759-7280
BERWICK, PA. Berwick Offray LLC and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Lion Ribbon Company, Inc. (collectively “Berwick Offray”), today filed a petition asking the United States to charge antidumping duties on narrow woven ribbons imported from Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. In the petition, which was filed today with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, Berwick Offray says that U.S. manufacturers of narrow woven ribbons have been materially injured, and are threatened with further material injury, because imports from Taiwan and China are being sold into the U.S. at less than fair value.
Berwick Offray is asking the United States to collect antidumping duties to negate the effect of the less-than-fair-value prices at which narrow woven ribbon products are being imported into the U.S. from Taiwan and China. As part of the petition, Berwick Offray also says that narrow woven ribbons imported from China have an unfair pricing advantage over those manufactured in the U.S. because Chinese manufacturers of these products receive governmental subsidies. To negate the unfair advantage provided by these governmental subsidies, Berwick Offray has asked the United States to charge countervailing duties on narrow woven ribbons from China.
"With our dedicated and skilled U.S. workers, we produce quality ribbon in our highly efficient U.S. narrow weaving facilities," said Scott Shea, President of Berwick Offray. "Assuming a level playing field, we are able to compete with anyone, including the Taiwanese and Chinese. We believe that trade remedies, in the form of duties, are absolutely necessary to negate the effects of dumping from Taiwan and China and to offset the unfair pricing advantage provided by governmental subsidies in China. A very significant number of U.S. jobs are at stake.”
Berwick Offray says that there has been dramatic growth in the volume of narrow woven ribbons imported into the U.S. from Taiwan and China, citing, in the first quarter of 2009 alone, a 76% increase in import volume versus the same period last year. Because these products are being dumped into the U.S. market, Berwick Offray says, U.S. manufacturers have experienced declines in shipments, revenues, capacity utilization, wages, employment, profits and investment, and they are threatened with future declines in all of these areas.
The petition covers narrow woven ribbons with woven selvedge made of man-made fibers and/or metal fibers or metalized yarns. These products are produced by weaving yarns into ribbon having whatever width is desired, a process that creates woven selvedges, i.e., longitudinal edges that are “woven” as part of the process by which the ribbon itself is woven. The petition does not cover cut-edge woven ribbons, which are ribbons produced by slitting wider pieces of fabric into strips of ribbon.
Berwick Offray is headquartered in Berwick, Pennsylvania. Through its subsidiaries, Berwick Offray is a leading U.S. manufacturer of narrow woven ribbon products. These products are made at company production facilities in Leesville, South Carolina and Hagerstown, Maryland. Employees at company facilities in Budd Lake, New Jersey; Berwick, Pennsylvania and El Paso, Texas support the design, marketing, sale and distribution of these products. Berwick Offray’s narrow woven ribbon products are used in a variety of decorative packaging, craft, floral and industrial applications. In addition to manufacturing narrow woven ribbon products for resale to consumers through retail channels, Berwick Offray manufactures narrow woven ribbons distributed in non-resale channels, such as florists who incorporate these products in flower arrangements and other consumer-oriented businesses that use these products in multiple applications.
