BRUSSELS: European Union producers of sweet corn, including Bonduelle SA in France, have won five more years of tariffs against Thai competitors as the bloc prolonged trade protection more than a decade old.
The EU reimposed duties as high as 14.3% on prepared or preserved sweet corn in kernels from Thailand to counter below-cost -- or “dumped” -- imports.
The companies targeted include Malee Sampran Public Co, River Kwai International Food Industry Co and Siam Food Products Public Co.
The European Commission said that Thai exporters of sweet corn continue unfairly to undercut a “still vulnerable and fragile” EU industry and have “substantial spare capacities” that could be directed to the bloc.
“Consequently, should the current anti-dumping measures lapse, the imports from Thailand to the union are likely to increase significantly and at dumped prices,” the commission, the 28-nation EU’s executive arm in Brussels, said on Monday in the Official Journal. The five-year renewal of the levies is due to take effect on Tuesday.
Thai exporters of sweet corn had a combined 3.9% of the EU market in the 12 months through June 2018, unchanged from 2015, according to the commission. The two next-biggest foreign suppliers to the bloc are the US and China, with market shares of less than 1% each, the commission said.