Now Open: Antidumping investigation on Brazilian imports of optical fibers from China

In brief

The Brazilian Secretariat of International Trade (SECEX) initiated a new antidumping investigation against Brazilian imports of optical fibers from China on 2 August 2024, commonly classified under the NCM code 9001.10.11.

Optical fibers are used to manufacture fiber optic cables, which in turn are used in telecommunications systems for data transmission, sounds, and images, and in long-distance communication networks, metropolitan networks, third-party access networks, and internal networks.

The full text of the Official Notice of Initiation of the antidumping investigation (in Portuguese) is available in the following link.

Relevance of stakeholder participation

Active participation of importers, exporters, and any other interested parties in the investigation may be decisive in securing a more favorable outcome. Interested parties can request to be admitted as parties in the investigation until 26 August 2024[1], provided they demonstrate the extent to which they could be affected by the imposition of the antidumping duty.

• Deadline for replying to the Importer’s Questionnaire: 30 days as of acknowledgement of receipt (presumed 3 days after the date of electronic transmission by the authority);
• Deadline for replying to the Exporter’s Questionnaire: 30 days as of acknowledgement of receipt (presumed 7 days after the date of electronic transmission by the authority).

Usually, a public interest assessment may be requested only after the conclusion of the trade remedies investigation, as established by SECEX Ordinance No. 282/2023. (Additional information is available in our Legal Alert on the subject).

More details

The new investigation was initiated upon the request Prysmian Cabos e Sistemas do Brasil S/A, with the support of Furukawa Electric Latam S/A, which together account for all Brazilian producers of optical fibers.

• Investigated product: Single-mode optical fibers with a core diameter of less than 11 micrometers
• Uses: Single-mode optical fibers with a core diameter of less than 11 micrometers
• Dumping margin – China: 21 US$/kg /   31.1%
• Antidumping investigation concerning fiber-optic cables: According to the Official Notice No. 32 of July 4, 2024 (link in Portuguese), there is an ongoing antidumping investigation into Brazilian imports of fiber-optic cables (NCM 8544.70.10) from China, i.e. the end product of which the optical fiber is an input.

[1] 20-day deadline, pursuant to Article 45, paragraph third, of the Decree No. 8,058/2013. The deadline period starts on the first working day after the publication of the Notice in the Official Gazette (August 5) and ends on August 26. Conservatively, we would recommend that the requests are submitted until August 23, 2024 (the last working day before the official deadline).