ARA coalition urges ITC to revoke urea duties

Washington, D.C.-The Agricultural Retailers Association and a coalition of national, regional, and state agribusiness and commodity organizations sent a letter on Nov. 8 to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) urging the removal of antidumping duty orders on solid urea fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine. The ITC is currently reviewing its 2005 sunset review decision to continue antidumping duty orders on urea imports from the two subject counties. “Since the ITC’s 3 to 3 split vote in November 2005 there have been significant changes in both the domestic and international fertilizer marketplace that warrant the elimination of these outdated trade restrictions,” the letter states. ARA and the coalition organizations refer to recent USDA estimates that nitrogen use will be 6-8 percent higher than previous years at a time when farmers have paid record prices for fertilizer products for the past three years. The ITC’s review of the decision comes at the behest of a U.S. Court of International Trade judge, who in August remanded the case back to the ITC (GM Sept. 10, p. 1). The CIT judge asked for a review of several aspects of the ITC’s 2005 decision, including arguments that urea imports from the subject countries were likely to depress U.S. urea prices. The CIT judge also questioned the ITC’s conclusion that revocation of the orders would “render the domestic industry vulnerable to material injury,” particularly in light of the improved financial picture for domestic producers since the antidumping duty orders were instituted in the late 1980s and administered throughout the 1990s. The ITC has until Nov. 26 to file its remand results with the CIT. The plaintiffs and “defendant-intervenors” will then have until Dec. 28 to submit responses to the decision. The plaintiffs in the case include Russian urea producers Nevinnomysskiy Azot, Novomoskovsk Azot JSC, JSC MCC Eurochem, Kuybyshevazot JSC, JSC “Azot” Berezniki, and JSC “Azot” Kemerovo. The defendant-intervenors include Agrium U.S. Inc. and the Ad Hoc Committee of Domestic Nitrogen Producers, whose urea-producing members include CF Industries Holdings Inc. and PCS Nitrogen Inc.