Petition Filed for New AD Duties on Lemon Juice From Brazil, South Africa

A domestic producer filed a petition Dec. 29 with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting new antidumping duties on lemon juice from Brazil and South Africa. Commerce will now decide whether to begin AD duty investigations. Ventura Coastal requested the investigation.

Commerce already has an AD duty suspension agreement in place on lemon juice from Argentina.

Proposed Scope

The petition proposes the following scope for the investigations:

The product covered by this investigation is certain lemon juice for further manufacture, with or without addition of preservatives, sugar or other sweeteners, regardless of the GPL (grams per liter of citric acid) level of concentration, brix level, brix/acid ratio, pulp content, clarity, grade, horticulture method (e.g., organic or not), processed form (e.g., frozen or not-from-concentrate), FDA standard of identity (as defined under 19 C.F.R. § 146.114 et seq.), size of the container in which packed or method of packing.

Excluded from the scope are: (1) Lemon juice at any level of concentration packed in retail-sized containers ready for sale to consumers, typically at a level of concentration of 48 GPL, and (2) beverage products such as lemonade that typically contain 20% or less lemon juice as an ingredient.

The scope also includes lemon juice that is blended with lemon juice from sources not subject to this investigation. Only the subject component of such blended merchandise is covered by the scope of this investigation. Blended lemon juice is defined as two or more distinct lemon juice products with differing country(s) of origin mixed together to form a singular lemon juice product where the component parts are no longer individually distinguishable.

The products subject to this investigation orders are currently classifiable under subheadings 2009.31.4000, 2009.31.6020, 2009.31.6040, 2009.39.6020, and 2009.39.6040 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the U.S. (HTSUS). Although the HTSUS subheadings are provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the scope of these investigations is dispositive.

Commerce Accepting Comments on Petition Support

The Commerce Department is accepting comments on domestic industry support for the petitions to determine whether the petitions meet the dual requirements of support by domestic producers or workers accounting for (1) at least 25% of the total production of the domestic-like product and (2) more than 50% of the production of the domestic-like product produced by that portion of the industry expressing support for, or opposition to, the petition. If the petitions meet these requirements, among others, Commerce will initiate an antidumping duty investigation. Comments are due by Jan. 11.