U.S. Probes Allegations of Spanish Olive Dumping

Summary

The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission are inves­ti­gat­ing whether Spanish olive pro­duc­ers are vio­lat­ing fair trade laws by sell­ing prod­ucts in the U.S. for less than they would in Spain, poten­tially harm­ing American pro­duc­ers. The inves­ti­ga­tion was prompted by peti­tions from Bell-Carter Foods, Inc. and Musco Family Olive Co., who claim that dumped and sub­si­dized Spanish olives are neg­a­tively impact­ing the U.S. ripe olive indus­try.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) have launched an inves­ti­ga­tion to deter­mine whether Spanish olive pro­duc­ers have been vio­lat­ing fair trade laws.

Officials are look­ing into whether these for­eign com­pa­nies are sell­ing prod­ucts in the U.S. for less than they would in Spain, a prac­tice known as dump­ing. Such activ­ity would vio­late laws that pro­tect American pro­duc­ers from being under­cut by out­side com­pe­ti­tion. The probe will also deter­mine whether pro­duc­ers in Spain are receiv­ing unfair sub­si­dies.

“The Department of Commerce will ensure a full and fair assess­ment of the facts, and, if the rules are being bro­ken, will act swiftly to halt any unfair trade prac­tices,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said. ​“The United States is com­mit­ted to a free, fair and rec­i­p­ro­cal trade with Spain.”

Subject mer­chan­dise includes all ripe olives grown, processed or pack­aged in Spain and sold in the U.S.

The inves­ti­ga­tion is the result of peti­tions put forth by the Coalition for Fair Trade in Ripe Olives, whose mem­bers are made up of Bell-Carter Foods, Inc. and Musco Family Olive Co.

“Dumped and sub­si­dized Spanish ripe olives are severely impact­ing our indus­try,” Bell-Carter CEO Tim Carter said in June.

“The legacy and even the sur­vival of the U.S. ripe olive indus­try are at stake.”

Close to 32,000 tons of Spanish olives were imported last year at a value of $70.9 mil­lion.

“Our ripe olive indus­try takes great pride in the indus­try it cre­ated, the high qual­ity of its prod­uct and the thou­sands of work­ers and fam­i­lies the indus­try sup­ports,” Musco CEO Felix Musco said in June. ​“Without import relief, all of this is at risk.”

If any wrong­do­ing is dis­cov­ered and it is deter­mined these activ­i­ties are caus­ing harm to U.S. busi­nesses the Commerce Department will impose duties on those imports in the amount of dump­ing and unfair sub­si­diza­tion found to exist.

Bell-Carter and Musco have sug­gested those tar­iffs be between 78 and 223 per­cent.

Preliminary inves­ti­ga­tions have been sched­uled for later this year, and the case is set to wrap up in early 2018.

The Coalition for Fair Trade in Ripe Olives sub­mit­ted its peti­tions to the Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission on June 22.

“The flood of highly sub­si­dized, low-priced imported ripe olives, prin­ci­pally from Spain, has con­tributed heav­ily over time to these indus­try fail­ures,” the group said in a state­ment. ​“The U.S. indus­try would be much more com­pet­i­tive if Spanish exporters were not dump­ing their prod­ucts in the U.S. and if Spanish grow­ers were not receiv­ing con­sid­er­able gov­ern­ment sub­si­dies.”

Carter lamented the shrink­ing size of America’s ripe olive indus­try.

He said ​“the U.S. ripe olive indus­try was cre­ated in California more than 100 years ago and at its peak had more than 20 proces­sors and 1,100 American olive grow­ers farm­ing more than 37,000 acres,” but now there are only two proces­sors and 890 grow­ers.

In December 2012, The USITC held a hear­ing in Washington as part of a $2‑million inves­ti­ga­tion into the con­di­tions of com­pe­ti­tion between American olive oil pro­duc­ers and major for­eign sup­pli­ers. The com­mis­sion’s report was released in September 2013.

The doc­u­ment, which was pre­pared at the request of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, exam­ined the com­plex global olive oil indus­try, and the con­di­tions con­fronting American olive oil pro­duc­ers who were rel­a­tive new­com­ers to an ancient trade with big stakes.

The report’s find­ings have been cited ever since in the ongo­ing leg­isla­tive efforts by American pro­duc­ers to level the play­ing field through Farm Bills, trade pacts, test­ing pro­grams for imported olive oils, and the estab­lish­ment of the Olive Oil Commission of California.

• U.S. Department of Commerce


• CNN