ITWTF Americas

November, 2003 - ITWTF Americas

To our valued distribution partners –

We want to keep you informed of developments in the antidumping case filed by IIMAK in May 2003, to ensure you have the facts you need to make informed business decisions.

Following a preliminary decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC) a few months ago that TTR imports from France, Japan, and South Korea appeared to be hurting the U.S. industry, IIMAK’s case then moved to the Commerce Department for investigations of fair pricing. When Commerce completes its investigations in Spring 2004, the case will move back to the ITC for a final, more comprehensive review of the impact of imports on U.S. producers. As you may have heard, the companies involved in the France and Japan investigations – Armor and Dai Nippon (DNP) – have decided to stop participating in their Commerce investigations. As a result, Commerce will impose a significant antidumping duty deposit/bonding requirement on imports of covered TTR from France and Japan after Commerce makes its preliminary decision in mid-December. You should understand, however, that the withdrawal by DNP and Armor from the Commerce investigations does not mean the case is over for these companies/countries; we understand they will still fight the IIMAK claims in the final ITC proceeding and, if successful, the case will be terminated and no antidumping duties will be imposed.

Moreover, the DNP and Armor decisions have no negative bearing on the investigation of ITW imports from South Korea. We are continuing to defend our position against the claims by IIMAK that we believe are unfounded. We are committed to showing in the Commerce investigation that our sales are fairly priced. Therefore, regardless of the temporary penalty deposit/bonding requirements that will apply to imports from Japan and France, we hope to be able to minimize any penalty duties on our imports. ITW also remains committed, if necessary, to showing in the ITC final investigation that our imports are not causing injury to IIMAK.

Defending against the IIMAK claims is an expensive and time-consuming distraction for ITW. You need to understand, however, that our primary focus remains on supplying our valued customers. Our sales, manufacturing, and customer service teams are not involved in the trade case on a daily basis. Instead, they will continue to provide you with competitively priced, quality thermal transfer ribbon products at the highest level of service. We continue to stock our products ready for shipment, as always, now and in the future. The resolve of ITW Inc. and ITW Thermal Films remains undiminished to serve our distribution partners in the thermal transfer/coated films industries in the United States.

The trade case brought by IIMAK has raised a number of questions for distributors. We urge you to scrutinize carefully the information (and misinformation) that may be circulated in the marketplace. ITW will strive to keep you updated with relevant developments. If you have questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to contact me.

Pete Gallette
General Manager
ITW Thermal Films – The Americas

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