On June 1, 1999, a petition was filed with the Ministry of Finance (MOF) by China Petrochemical Development Corporation, alleging that an industry in Taiwan is materially injured and threatened with material injury by reason of dumping of Acrylonitrile from the U.S., Japan and Korea. Accordingly, effective August 11, 1999, the MOF initiated antidumping investigation and requested the International Trade Commission (ITC) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to proceed with the preliminary injury investigation.
In response to the MOF request, effective August 13, 1999, the ITC instituted the preliminary injury investigation.
The ITC has organized an investigation team to investigate this case. In addition to the ITC staff, the investigation team consists of experts from various government departments and institutes, such as the Directorate General of Customs of the MOF, the Industrial Development Bureau of the MOEA, the Board of Foreign Trade of the MOEA, and Industrial Technology Research Institute. The ITC Commissioner Chou, Tien-Chen is in charge of this investigation and on August 5, 1999, he convened and chaired the first staff meeting to discuss some of the material issues and the detail scheduling of this investigation.
It is decided during the staff meeting that an on-site investigation is scheduled on August 20, 1999, and a preliminary conference is scheduled on September 7, 1999. The ITC hopes that the preliminary injury investigation will be completed by the end of September 1999, and the determination of the investigation results will be forwarded to the MOF before September 26, 1999.