Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued amended antidumping duty assessments on ball bearings and parts from China. The preliminary margins and deposit requirements were originally issued on October 2, 2002.
The Import Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, recalculated the margins once clerical, data entry and database errors had been identified and fixed. Both sides agreed to the database and clerical revisions which resulted in these new margin calculations:

Wanxiang Group Corporation
Preliminary margin: 39.93%
Amended margin: 2.39%

Ningbo Cixing Group Corp.
Preliminary margin: 32.69%
Amended margin: 2.32%

Xinchang Peer Bearing Company Ltd.
Preliminary margin: 2.39%
Amended margin: 2.39% (7.11%)
Note: Peer's amended margin is 7.11%, but because it did not change by more than 5%, the deposit will stay at 2.39% until the Final Determination.

"All Other" weighted margin
Preliminary margin: 22.99%
Amended margin: 2.41%
These margins are the deposit rates which must be paid until the Final Determination is made; the new rates take effect in approximately 7 days, upon publication in the Federal Register and formal notification of U.S. Customs.

While everyone involved expected there would be adjustments to the original margins - perhaps significant adjustments - the swings were still surprising. Most of the people we spoke with today indicated that they were surprised, not only by the magnitude of the adjustments but also by how low the adjusted margins have been calculated.

eBearing also talked to Mr. James Terpstra of the Import Administration Antidumping/Countervailing Duty (IA AD/CVD) Enforcement Office in the Department of Commerce. Mr. Terpstra and other staff members have been involved in antidumping cases involving bearings since the original AFB cases in the 1970's.

Mr. Terpstra echoed what we have been told by many others in the Department of Commerce and representatives from both sides ... that this case is as complex and involved as most have ever seen.

Mr. Terpstra explained that there are several large and complex databases which must be built, maintained, corrected and analyzed. Similarly, the use of factors of production (steel, electricity, labor, scrap loss, etc.) adds a great deal of complexity to the analysis and forecasting models. Clerical and database errors can involve, for example, everything from the wrong units of measure being used to mis-analysis of the thousands of customer sales records involved. Often, one error such as a wrong labor rate or unit of measure, can be magnified many times over as it is applied throughout the analyses.

After the original duty margins were announced, the Department of Commerce made available to counsel from both sides the data and methodology used in the calculations. The DOC then received between 10 and 15 responses from both sides, indicating where they believed mistakes had been made. Around one third of the alleged errors were found to be real mistakes, changes were put to the agreement of both sides, and recalculations were made.

Staff from the Import Administration are in China now, performing the on-site fact-finding and analyses in preparation for the final determination.

(Adopted From eBearing.com)