Chinese Glass Bottle Import Surge Likely to Abate

By Jock O’Connell

Awhile back, we noted that the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) seemed poised to impose substantial countervailing duties on imports of glass bottles from China. Those duties could have affected shipments of the empty bottles California’s wine producers need to package their merchandise. No doubt in anticipation of an adverse ruling from the USITC, imports of glass bottles have surged by 21.6% this year, even as wine consumption in the U.S. has been tailing off. The imported bottles, valued at $256 million last year, primarily arrived at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles (34.1%), while a smaller 18.3% share came through the Port of Oakland. Single-digit shares also entered the Northwest Seaport Alliance Ports of Tacoma and Seattle (5.5%) and Oregon’s Port of Portland (2.1%).

To update the bottle saga, it now appears that the USITC will not impose any countervailing duties on imports of Chinese glass bottles. The U.S. government began looking into the matter late last year after petitions were filed by the U.S. Glass Producers Coalition. In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce reached a preliminary determination that the Chinese government had been subsidizing glass prices. That preliminary ruling necessitated temporary cash deposits ranging from 21.14% to 202.70% on Chinese glass imports. That led to a presumption that permanent tariffs could be imminent.

But that won’t happen. The USITC ruled on October 23 that the United States “is not materially injured or threatened with material injury by reason of imports of glass wine bottles from China.”