The US has announced a preliminary determination of countervailing duty (CVD) on imports of lined paper products The US has announced a preliminary determination of countervailing duty (CVD) on imports of lined paper products from India. It has also blamed the country for providing export subsidies, causing material injury to the US industry.

In a preliminary investigation, the US department of commerce has found that countervailable subsidies were provided to producers/exporters of certain lined paper products from India, with net subsidy rates in the range of 2.20-7.17 per cent. "Indonesia and China are also facing a similar charge. The net subsidy rate in case of Indonesia has been determined at 33.31 per cent."

The paper products include school supplies of paper having horizontal or vertical lines, notebooks composition books, wireless notebooks, looseleaf, glued filler paper, graph paper and laboratory notebooks.

Confirming that the government has announced its preliminary determinations, the US department of Commerce said in a statement, “As a result of these preliminary determinations, the department will instruct US customs and Border Protection to suspend liquidation of entries of subject merchandise and to collect a cash deposit or bond based on preliminary rates.” Before making its final determinations, the department will consider all submitted comments from interested parties along with other record evidence. Final determinations are likely to be pronounced in April 2006.

The department's preliminary determination in the anti-dumping investigations from India, Indonesia and China is scheduled to be announced on March 21, 2006. The US government is also examining a petition seeking imposition of anti-dumping duty against imports of lined paper school supplies from the three countries.