In the spring of 2012, the biggest Russian producer of fluoropolymer products OJSC HaloPolymer, which accounts for nine percent of the world’s’ ‘market in terms of production volume, opened its overseas representative office in the United States. HaloPolymer Trading, Inc. is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with storage facilities in Houston and New York. The main task of the U.S. office was to increase the sales of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) products, as well as to build up the sales of fuse fluoropolymers to customers in North and South America.

The Russian polymer producer got | I off to a good start on the American market. In July 2012, the first shipments of PTFEs were launched from the warehouses of HaloPolymer Trading, Inc., located in Houston and New York. Within i only one month, the office in the U.S. sold about 120 metric tons of PTFEs, a volume that amounted to 4.3 percent of the monthly consumption of the product in North America.

Vladislav Grinin was tirelessly working with his clients in an effort to create brand awareness for the new player on the American polymer market. HaloPolymer Trading, Inc. became a member of the Society of the Plastics Industry, the plastics industry trade association. The company participated in all the major events of the organization. Sales were increasing month by month, in spite of a downturn on the American plastics market that occurred in 2011 and is still continuing. In 2013, HaloPolymer Trading, Inc. sold 280 percent more PTFEs than in 2012.

“When we opened our representative office in the U.S., we were thinking about real advantages for our American customers, such as fixed pricing at the time of the transaction, the elimination of customs formalities, and the reduction of transit time,” HaloPolymer Trading’s president Vladislav Grinin said.

Talking about the problems that the company was experiencing on the American market, Mr. Grinin named the phase-out of the GSP program effective August 1, 2013 as his biggest concern.

“The Generalized System of Preferences, or GSP for short, is a trade program that was designed to promote economic growth in the developing world by reducing taxes and providing preferential, duty-free entry for products when they were imported from any one of the 127 designated beneficiary countries,” Grinin explained. “Russia was one of them. We expected that the U.S. Congress would renew the GSP program. However, it still has not happened. Because Congress allowed the GSP program to expire at the end of July 2013, I am paying 5.8 percent of the cost of each cargo batch. Our company is losing money. Many big and small companies are losing money. Nationally, the expiration of the GSP costs American companies about USD2 million per day. HaloPolymer Trading, Inc. joined the GSP supporter list in order to urge Congress to renew the GSP program as quickly as possible.”

In the United States, the Generalized System of Preferences Act permitted the executive agencies to grant duty free treatment to eligible articles from beneficiary countries when it was determined that to do so would promote economic development in the developing countries. The GSP program was instituted on January 1, 1976 and has been reauthorized on a number of occasions, sometimes following a temporary lapse in coverage.

Congressional authorization of the GSP program last expired on December 31, 2010. Legislative initiatives got underway in the fall of 2011 that ultimately led to the program’s reauthorization through 2013. In September 2011, when Congress addressed the GSP issue comprehensively for the last time, the legislators showed enthusiastic support for the measure. As such, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly approved cloture for debate on the Generalized System of Preferences Act, sponsored by a Republican House of Representatives member Dave Camp from Michigan. The measure was to reauthorize the Generalized System of Preferences for authorizing duty-free imports from certain developing countries. Democratic Senator Max Baucus of Montana, a supporter of the measure, said that the reauthorization helped

Americans keep their jobs by providing the low-cost inputs U.S. manufacturers need and removed hundreds of millions of dollars of import tariffs. The vote on debate was 84 yeas to 8 nays. In October of 2011, the U.S House of Representatives concurrence in the Senate’s amendment to the bill. President Obama signed the legislative measure to reauthorize the GSP program through July 31, 2013 on November 5, 2011.

Vladislav Grinin of HaloPolymer Trading, Inc. said that previous reauthorizations of GSP have virtually always been retroactive, allowing importers to claim refunds of duties paid during the lapse. He acknowledged that market commentators noted that this time the U.S. Congress might not be in as good of a mood to pay a substantial amount of money back, as would be required if the new law applied retroactively.

Mr. Grinin concluded that HaloPolymer will continue to work with other industry leaders and associations for the return of the GSP program as soon as possible. “The U.S. Congress should hear our voice in the interests of American consumers, as well as the international commerce as a whole,” the Russian business executive concluded.

HaloPolymer Trading, Inc.

2100 West Loop South, Suite 900

Houston, Texas 77027

U.S. tel.: 832-627-8698

U.S. fax: 713-590-5103

www.halopolymer.com