Peru’s National Institute for Defense Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) has decided to impose anti-dumping duties on five types of clothing—polos, shirts, pants and shorts, innerwear and socks—imported from China.

 

INDECOPIs Committee on Dumping and Subsidies (CFD) has taken the decision in order to neutralize the damage cause to the Peruvian domestic industry due to imports of clothing from China, which entered Peru at dumping prices, INDECOPI said in a press release.

 

Since garments and clothing accessories are consumer products in the country, the Commission set anti-dumping duties at the lowest possible level to avoid affecting trade flows, but at the same time sufficient enough to neutralize the damage caused to the Peruvian domestic apparel industry by dumping at lower prices, the statement said.

 

The duties imposed on polos, shirts, innerwear and socks are between US$ 0.14 and US$ 1.00 per garment, while the duties on imports of pants and shorts are equivalent to US $ 3.73 per garment. 

 

These duties would be applicable to Chinese clothing which are imported at less than or equal to US$ 6.73 for shirts, US$ 15.98 for trousers and shorts, US$ 4.33 for polos, US$ 1.59 for innerwear and US$ 1.24 for socks. These criteria would ensure that the anti-dumping measures will have minimal impact on final prices to consumers, INDECPOI said.

 

With the current decision, INDECOPI has terminated the investigation it began in June 2012 on 15 types of apparel and clothing accessories imported from China, ranked under 276 sub-headings.

 

A thorough and exhaustive investigation in which all parties had ample opportunity to express their views and present evidence was carried out to find out the damage caused to domestic apparel producers, mostly micro and small enterprises that directly and indirectly generate about 215,000 jobs.

 

The commission, however, concluded that it would only apply to five types of clothing, under 34 subheadings, that impact the performance of the Peruvian domestic apparel industry.

 

Between 2009 and 2011, Peruvian domestic apparel industry experienced a contraction of 18.7 percent in its market while its inventory grew 32.2 percent. Although the domestic demand in 2011 increased by more than 36 million garments, the domestic apparel industry could cover only 2 percent of this demand.

 

On the other hand, it was observed that between 2009 and 2011, imports of Chinese products increased significantly, from 119 million garments to 187 million garments, which covered 80 percent of the increase in demand. During this period, imports of apparel and clothing accessories from China entered the Peruvian market at prices that were between 37 percent and 38 percent below the price of domestic manufacturers, INDECOPI said.