U.S. Honey Producers Seek Relief from Alleged Dumping by Five Countries

Trade Update • APRIL 23, 2021

Domestic honey producers this week filed petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. International Trade Commission, seeking antidumping duties on imports of natural honey from Argentina, Brazil, India, Ukraine and Vietnam.

The American Honey Producers Association and the Sioux Honey Association allege that nearly $300 million worth of raw honey is being dumped by the subject countries at levels that are causing material injury to domestic producers.

Scope of Petition

The subject commodity covered by the petitions is raw honey. More specifically, honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling and skimming, or coarse straining. Raw honey has not been filtered to a level that results in the removal of most or all of the pollen. The subject goods include all grades, floral sources, and colors of raw honey and also include organic raw honey.

Excluded from the scope is comb honey or honey that is packaged for retail sale (e.g., in bottles or other retail containers of five (5) lbs or less).

The goods subject to this order are currently classifiable under subheading 0409.0000.05, 0409.0000.35, 0409.0000.45, 0409.0000.56, and 0409.0000.65 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States.

Alleged Margins of Dumping

The petitioners allege the following margins of dumping:

• Argentina: 16.83% to 22.60%
• Brazil: 114.50%
• India: 34.22% to 99.16%
• Ukraine: 10.56% to 94.84%
• Vietnam: 207.08%

Note: Commerce generally assigns duties at the alleged dumping rates to those exporters who fail to cooperate with the investigation.

Potential Trade Impact

According to official U.S. import statistics, more than 381 million pounds of natural honey valued at almost $300 million was imported into the United States from the subject countries in 2020.

• Argentina: $92,840,688
• Brazil: $69,499,194
• India: $57,382,766
• Vietnam: $60,233,997
• Ukraine: $18,622,263
• Total: $298,578,908

Next Steps

The ITC is expected to make a preliminary injury determination by June 5, while Commerce should, if not postponed, make a preliminary AD determination by Sept. 28, 2021.