Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the US at less than normal value. Similar products from Indonesia were also found to be sold at unfair prices in the market and would suffer 67.18-67.62 percent antidumping duties.

As a result of these preliminary determinations, the department will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect a cash deposit or bond based on the rates.

The products subject to investigations filed by Hartsville-based Hilex Poly and Houton-based Superbag Corporation are referred to as T-shirt sacks, merchandise, grocery bags or checkout bags.

Ho Dac Lam, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Plastic Association, told the Tuoi Tre Newspaper late last week that the new tax rates are surprisingly high. The bags from Vietnam were currently charged import taxes of less than 5 percent, he said.

The department would make its final determination in March and if the US International Commission affirms the preliminary determination in April that imports of plastic bags from Vietnam materially injure or threaten material injury to domestic industry, the duties would officially come into force.

Late August, the department made another determination in a countervailing investigation on imports of the products from Vietnam, Taiwan and Indonesia.

Under this, three Vietnamese exporters Advance Polybag, Chin Sheng Company and Fotai would be imposed with an extra import tax of 0.20, 1.69 and 4.24 percent respectively, while other Vietnamese bag makers would pay an extra tax of 2.97 percent.

Countervailing duties are charged when a foreign country is found to be subsidizing its businesses for exports, putting domestic producers in the importing country at a disadvantage.

Vietnam increased its exports of plastic bags to the US from US$17 million to US$79.4 million between 2006 and 2008 while Indonesia went from $23 million to 37.77 million to the US last year, according to the department.

The US government has already imposed punitive tariff measures of 77.57 percent on the bags imported from China, 122.88 percent on Thailand and 101.74 percent on Malaysia.

Reported by Minh Quang