In addition, future imports into the U.S. of bags produced by Euro Plastics will be subject to cash antidumping duty deposit requirements of 43 percent, the agency said.

The ruling was part of the department’s annual administrative review of a 2004 antidumping order on imports of plastic grocery and shopping bags from Malaysia, China and Thailand. The agency postponed until July 22 and Aug. 3, respectively, its preliminary ruling on whether to continue existing antidumping duties on imports from China and Thailand. Final results for those two countries are expected in January or February.

If there is no change in the preliminary decision on Euro Plastics when a final determination is made in November for Malaysia, importers of plastic bags manufactured by Euro Plastics will receive a bill from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection for duties in the amount of 43 percent of the value of those imports, plus interest, said Joseph Dorn, partner in the Washington law office of King & Spalding LLP.

Euro Plastics Malaysia, which is based in Shah Alam, Malaysia, is part of Euro Packaging plc in Birmingham, England. Euro Plastics exports its bags from Malaysia to the U.S. primarily through Euro Packaging LLC, its affiliated reseller located in Salem, N.H.

“It’s a pretty big preliminary ruling because the cash deposit rate has been zero for that company,” Dorn said in a phone interview. According to Dorn, Euro Plastics did not export bags to the U.S. in 2006, but ramped up exports to the U.S. market after the Commerce Department eliminated its antidumping cash deposit rate in August 2007.

“The domestic industry applauds the Commerce Department’s preliminary ruling, which, if upheld in the final results, will prevent Euro Plastics from abusing its zero cash deposit rate and expanding its U.S. market share through unfair pricing,” said Dorn, whose firm represents the coalition of domestic producers that brought the antidumping petition in 2003.

A zero deposit rate does not mean that plastic bags can be imported free of antidumping duties. Exports of plastic bags into the U.S. are subject to Commerce Department review.

The original petition resulted in antidumping duties ranging from 20-122 percent on bag manufacturers in China, Malaysia and Thailand.

Acting on a similar petition filed in March, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled May 14 that there is reason to believe that plastic grocery and shopping bags from Indonesia, Taiwan and Vietnam are being sold in the United States at prices anywhere from 28 percent to 96 percent below their fair value.

The Commerce Department estimated the dumping margins at 76 percent to 96 percent for bags imported from Taiwan, 35 percent to 60 percent for bags imported from Indonesia, and 28 percent to 76 percent for bags imported from Vietnam.

The department also is investigating two policy lending programs, three grant programs, three income tax programs, and three import and value-added tax exemption programs from the Vietnamese government to determine whether to impose countervailing duties against Vietnam.

A preliminary ruling on the antidumping and countervailing duties is due Sept. 7, with a final ruling sometime between December and April.

The number of plastic shopping bags exported from those three countries has more than doubled from 6.8 billion in 2006 to 14.6 billion in 2008, increasing the market share of those three countries from 7 to 15 percent, Dorn said. In that same time frame, he said, the value of bags exported from those three countries has nearly tripled — from $63.5 million in 2006 to $182 million in 2008.

A dumping petition charges that a company sells its product in the U.S. at a lower price than it sells that same product in its own country, or at price lower than its cost of producing that product. A countervailing duty petition alleges that a foreign government is providing financial assistance to benefit the production, manufacturer or exportation of a product.

Since ITC and Commerce Department rulings in 2004, a number of China retail bag manufacturers have moved their packaging operations for plastic bags to Vietnam. According to Commerce statistics, Vietnam now is the second largest exporter of plastic retail bags to the U.S., with bag exports valued at nearly $86 million in 2008, compared to just over $19 million in 2006. Import taxes on bags from Vietnam are currently less than 5 percent.