On March 20, 2023, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that
an agreement had been reached in the antidumping and countervailing
duty (AD/CVD) investigation on imports of white grape juice
concentrate (WGJC) from Argentina,1 narrowly avoiding a
pending final ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission
(USITC) that would have imposed significant tariffs.2 At
first glance, that announcement might make you think, 'So what?
It's just grape juice.' But as is often the case, there is
more to the story than it may seem.
How It All Began
On March 31, 2022, a cooperative of grape growers from the
Delano, California area, Delano Growers Grape Products, LLC, filed
a petition with USITC claiming material injury due to underselling
and price suppression (i.e., dumping) by white grape juice
concentrate producers in Argentina. Delano Growers also claimed
that countervailable subsidies from the Government of Argentina
promoted and facilitated the Argentinian WGJC
