The US Department of Commerce Rules Against Hynix

by Anton Shilov
04/02/2003 | 10:08 AM

Following the colleagues from the European Commission (see this news-story), the US Department of Commerce has made a preliminary ruling on Hynix Semiconductor case on Tuesday. Officials from US Department of Commerce said that it was found that the Korean government unfairly subsidized memory makers, who then imported their memory chips into the USA, affecting the sales of local memory makers.

In late 2002 the International Trade Commission also made a preliminary finding that the Korean government had subsidised the local DRAM makers, what had injured the USA memory chip industry (see this news-story).

Final rulings are expected to be made from the Commerce Department on June 16 and the US International Trade Commission will announce it on July 31. If final rulings in the USA reflect preliminary rulings, Hynix Semiconductor could face punitive import duties of 57.37% beginning from August 7.

Department of Commerce said that subsidy rates for Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor are 0.16% and 57.37% respectively. The commission noted that Samsung will not face punitive import duties.

South Korea's Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that it deeply regretted the U.S. Commerce Department's preliminary decision to impose countervailing duties on Korean memory chips, Reuters reported. Samsung and Hynix officials also denied that they had received any subsidies from the government and acknowledged that all the bonds, loans and bailouts were decided by the creditors based on the “market principles”. Since at the moment Micron’s allegations concern the whole country, the south-Korean government said that if the US final rulings are the same as preliminary, it would file a lawsuit against the country at the World Trade Organization.

Hynix officials did not unveil any ways of avoiding the import duties. One of the ways to continue selling memory without paying gigantic duties is to market the products via other companies in Asia, for instance via Samsung, or… Infineon and Micron.