China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has decided to reevaluate the necessity of maintaining anti-dumping duties imposed four years ago on coated art paper imported from the Republic of Korea and Japan.

The review was launched Monday at the request of Japan's Oji Paper Co Ltd, which asserted that its alleged dumping range had weakened since an anti-dumping duty of 56 percent was levied on August 6, 2003.

An MOFCOM statement said the re-examination targeted coated art paper imports from October 1, 2006, to September 30, 2007, and would determine their normal value and exports prices so as to estimate the dumping ranges.

Parties concerned must submit written submissions complete with evidence within 20 days since the beginning of the review.

A special questionnaire will be distributed to relevant parties who must reply with 37 days of its arrival. If necessary, parties concerned may sumbit a written request for hearings. MOFCOM investigators will also carry out field surveys.

In its first anti-dumping investigation after joining the World Trade Organization, the Chinese government imposed temporary anti-dumping tariffs on coated art paper imported from the United States, the ROK and Japan on November 26, 2002.

Duties of 5.58 percent to 31.09 percent were imposed on at least six major ROK paper makers, including Hansol, Shinho, Shinmoorim, Hankuk, Kye Sung and Moorim. Japan's Nippon Paper Industries was subject to an import duty of 23.89 percent import duty and Oji Paper 56.52 percent.

The investigation was originally launched on the application of four local paper manufacturers -- East Gold Paper, Shandong Quanlin Paper, Jiangnan Paper Mill and Wanhao Paper Group -- which accounted for 65.6 percent of the country's total output of coated art paper in 2000 and 56.6 percent 2001.

Nine months later, a formal verdict was delivered, requiring importers of the paper originating from the ROK and Japan to pay duty ranging from four to 71 percent. But the investigations against imports from the United States and Finland were dropped.

Statistics from the Paper Chapter of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce show China's coated art paper output rocketed from 180,000 tons in 1998 to 3.8 million tons last year, with 850,000 tons exported globally.

In September, China filed its first World Trade Organization complaint against Washington in five years on the anti-dumping duties ranging from 23.19 percent to 99.65 percent that the United States had planned to impose on the coated paper imports from China that were mainly used for publishing color pictorials, advertisements and packaging.