Aceto: China herbicide dispute won't affect sales

The Lake Success-based chemical company Aceto Corp. has weighed in on an international controversy over low-priced Chinese exports of a weed killer. Aceto says its sales of the herbicide glyphosate won't be affected by the dispute during this year's farming cycle.

Aceto's comments came after other U.S. companies last week accused China of undercutting the world herbicide market with huge quantities of cheap glyphosate, the key ingredient in the herbicide Roundup. The patent on glyphosate lapsed some time ago.

The alleged dumping has threatened U.S. makers of the chemical, originally developed by Monsanto. It is widely used on soy, corn and other crops.

A petition was filed March 31 asking the U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. International Trade Commission to consider anti-dumping tariffs on the herbicide. The petition and any action on it won't affect Aceto this year, chief executive Vince Miata said in a statement last week. Aceto is a distributor of glyphosate.

"We believe that our current inventory, which should be sufficient for the 2010 selling season, is not subject to the petition, and we have begun selling our glyphosate product as previously announced," Miata said.

Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at "less than normal value," often due to foreign government subsidies. In recent years, the United States has placed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese-manufactured tires, clothing and steel products.

Aceto will alter its plans, if needed, to deal with any regulatory actions taken against China by the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission, Miata said.

"Given the pricing uncertainties that the market may experience as a result of the petition, we believe our challenge will be in planning for future periods' growing seasons, when imports of glyphosate may be subject to additional duties," Miata said. "We intend to evaluate our business plans as this matter develops."