US Commerce preliminary antidumping duty on oleoresin paprika from India

Mechanism

Companion less-than-fair-value (antidumping) investigation to the countervailing-duty case on the same product (2026-02-06-us-doc-oleoresin-paprika-india-cvd-preliminary). Commerce initiated the AD investigation 2025-07-22 (case A-533-938), postponed the preliminary determination once (91 FR 3434, 27 January 2026) at the petitioner's request, and issued the preliminary affirmative LTFV determination with calculations dated 29 January 2026, published in the Federal Register 2 April 2026 (delayed from the postponed schedule by two rounds of shutdown-related deadline tolling — 47 days plus a further 21 days for an ACCESS e-filing backlog).

Commerce calculated company-specific weighted-average dumping margins of 3.33% (Mane Kancor) and 5.66% (Synthite Industries), with an all-others rate of 4.60% derived from the two respondents' publicly-ranged US sales values. Critically, because Commerce found affirmative countervailable export subsidies in the companion CVD proceeding, it offsets the AD cash deposit by the CVD export-subsidy rate wherever provisional CVD measures are in effect — reducing the actual cash-deposit rate for all three tiers to 0.00% for as long as both proceedings run concurrently. Critical circumstances were found preliminarily negative for all respondents (no retroactive duty exposure). Final determination was postponed alongside a corresponding extension of provisional measures; the USITC scheduled the final injury phase of both AD and CVD investigations via a 2026-04-20 notice.

Downstream implications

• Nominal dumping margins (3.33%-5.66%) are real but currently non-binding

for importers' cash-flow: the CVD offset zeroes out the AD cash deposit as long as CVD provisional measures stay in effect, so the near-term landed-cost impact on US spice/food-colour blenders sourcing from Mane Kancor and Synthite is driven by the CVD rates (18.56%-25.41%), not this AD margin.

• If CVD provisional measures expire before the AD investigation's

provisional period ends, Commerce will start collecting the unadjusted AD margins (3.33%-5.66%) as cash deposits — a timing risk worth tracking for importers modelling landed cost.

• Negative critical-circumstances finding means no retroactive liability

on pre-determination entries, unlike the CVD case's partial affirmative finding.

Open questions

• Did the final AD determination (paired with the final CVD phase per the

2026-04-20 USITC scheduling notice) confirm, raise, or lower the preliminary 3.33%-5.66% margins?

• Did the USITC reach an affirmative injury finding in the final phase,

and did standing AD and CVD orders both ultimately issue?

• What is the combined AD+CVD cash-deposit burden once both proceedings

reach final orders and the CVD-offset mechanic no longer applies?