Oleoresin paprika from India draws final US countervailing duties of 18.67% to 25.42%
US Commerce has set final rates in its long-running case against Indian oleoresin paprika — the coloured extract used across meat, snack, sauce and pet-food formulations — but the number that matters for pricing today is the countervailing duty, not the antidumping margin, and neither is being collected at the border yet.
Key facts
- Final countervailing duty rates: Synthite Industries 25.42%, Mane Kancor Ingredients 18.67%, all others 21.90%.
- The companion antidumping margins were offset to a 0.00% cash-deposit rate by the export-subsidy finding — the CVD carries the entire eventual burden, not the AD case.
- Nothing is collected at the border today: an order, and cash deposits, only follow if the ITC makes a final affirmative injury finding within 45 days.
- Synthite alone faces a critical-circumstances finding reaching back to 8 November 2025 — entries from that date could carry retroactive exposure if the order issues.
The two determinations, read together
Commerce published final determinations in both the countervailing duty and antidumping cases on 21 August 2026. Final countervailable subsidy rates: Synthite Industries Pvt. Ltd. 25.42%, Mane Kancor Ingredients Private Limited 18.67%, all others 21.90%. Final dumping margins came in far lower — Synthite 5.78%, Mane Kancor 4.24%, all others 5.08% — but because Commerce found countervailable export subsidies in the CVD case, it offset the antidumping margins by the export-subsidy rate, producing a 0.00% antidumping cash-deposit rate for all three. Read alone, the antidumping headline understates the real exposure: the countervailing duty carries the entire burden of any eventual order.
Critical circumstances split between the two cases in a way worth tracking by exporter. In the CVD case, Commerce found critical circumstances for Synthite only, reaching back 90 days before the 6 February 2026 preliminary determination to 8 November 2025 — a negative finding for Mane Kancor and all others, whose entries were suspended only from 6 February 2026. In the antidumping case, Commerce found critical circumstances negative for every producer and exporter.
What happens next, and what doesn't happen today
Nothing is being collected at the border right now: the CVD suspension of liquidation that was in place only ran through 5 June 2026. Commerce will issue a CVD order, reinstate suspension and require cash deposits at the rates above only if the US International Trade Commission (ITC) returns a final affirmative injury determination, due within 45 days of Commerce's final determination. A negative ITC vote ends the case and refunds or cancels any deposits and securities already collected.
Scope covers oleoresin paprika — a viscous red or orange liquid colourant extracted from Capsicum peppers, meeting an ASTA colour value of at least 500 or 20,000 colour units — regardless of pepper variety, oil or water solubility, weight, pungency, or added solvents. That breadth means blended or diluted preparations can fall inside scope if they clear the colour-value threshold, so classification under the secondary HTSUS lines doesn't put a shipment safely outside the case.
Why it matters
Anyone formulating with paprika oleoresin as a colourant — in meat and poultry products, snacks, sauces or pet food — is looking at roughly a fifth added to landed cost from the dominant supply origin if the ITC votes yes. Read the two determinations together: the antidumping deposit nets to zero, so the real number to plan against is the 18.67%-25.42% CVD, not the smaller AD margin. Buyers who took Synthite product between 8 November 2025 and 6 February 2026 face retroactive exposure if the order issues.