MOSCOW (INTERFAX.RU): The US Department of Commerce has extended for 3 days – until September 10 – the collection of comments from interested parties as part of an ongoing investigation into the compliance of the Russian economy with market status, the ministry said in a statement published in the official publication of the US government’s Federal Register .
Initially, the deadline for submitting comments in the framework of this investigation was August 30, then the US Department of Co-mmerce decided (upon the request) to extend it by 8 d-ays – until September 7 , n-ow the deadline is extended for another 3 days (according to another request) – up to 10 September.
“On September 2, 2021, we received a second request to extend the comment deadline. In response to this request, we extended the comment deadline by three additional days. The revised comment submission deadline is September 10, 2021,” the message says.
In late August, several sources told Interfax that Russian companies had hired law firms Sidley Austin and the Law Office of Neil Ellis to participate in a US investigation into the Russian economy’s ma-rket status. According to t-he interlocutors of the ag-ency, these companies will act as consultants for expo-rters of the Russian Federa-tion in the framework of the investigation, business will pay for their services.
As reported, an investigation into the market economy of the Russian Federation was launched by the US Department of Commerce in August during an antidumping analysis of the supply of a carbamide-ammonia mixture (an aqueous solution of urea and ammonium nitrate) from Russia.
“As part of our investigation of the fair value of the urea-ammonium mixture (UAN) supplied from the Russian Federation, we found that the applicant (American companies – IF) provided sufficient evidence for the Department of Commerce to consider whether Russia should continue to be viewed as a country. with a market economy for the purposes of the anti-dumping duty law, “- said in a comment from the US Department of Commerce.
The US Department of Commerce refers to the tariff law of 1930: it fixes six criteria, the compliance with which makes it possible to recognize the market economy. If the country’s economy does not meet some criterion, then the regulator can qualify the country as a non-market one.
The status of a market economy is very important for exporters, as it significantly complicates the possibility of imposing anti-dumping duties against them.
If the economy is considered non-market, then in the course of anti-dumping investigations in the United States in relation to the supply of products from this country, the cost of production of this or that product is calculated based on the similar cost of the costs of its production “in third countries”, in which it can be significantly higher (if, for example, take prices for energy resources in the Russian Federation, which are a natural competitive advantage), which makes it easy to prove dumping and introduce anti-dumping duties (most often Russian metallurgists and fertilizer producers suffer from this).
The USA recognized the Russian economy as a market economy in 2002. The then head of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation German Gref, commenting on the decision, noted that as of 2002, goods from Russia were subject to restrictions from the United States (as goods originating from a country with a non-market economy) totaling about $ 1.5 billion, including ” metals, fertilizers, titanium, and a whole range of Russian goods. “
