Hynix seen with chance to win

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. still has a chance to be cleared of charges by the United States that the chipmaker was illegally provided subsidies by the Korean government, an attorney said yesterday. The U.S. Commerce Department slapped on Tuesday a 44.7 percent countervailing duty on Hynix’s dynamic random access memory -- or DRAM -- chips, arguing that the Korean government has gave the company support. The company now awaits the final ruling by the U.S. International Trade Center, scheduled for July 29. The attorney, Kim Suk-han of the Washington law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld LLP, said yesterday, “International Trade Center’s criteria is whether the products have inflicted material injury. Samsung Electronics was dropped from the suit, thus, there is a possibility that exports by Hynix may not have actually damaged U.S. counterparts.” The U.S. Commerce Department can requests duties on the mere possibility that U.S. companies may be hurt by the questionable exports, but the International Trade Center looks for signs of actual damages, Mr. Kim said. The U.S. Commerce Department did not include Samsung in its final ruling, saying that the company’s subsidies from the Korean government were negligible. Hynix plans to stress that there has not been apparent damages to the U.S. memory chip industry. Hynix will also argue that the support may have come from banks in which the government is invested and that in such a case, the support was solely based on commercial considerations of the bank and thus do not correspond to subsidies. If Hynix loses in the final ruling at the International Trade Center, the company can appeal to the New York Court of International Trade, Mr. Kim said. There is a precedence. In 1993 Samsung appealed to that court and won a rollback of duties on its DRAM products, Mr. Kim said. by Kim Jong-hyun