The US Commerce Department made a preliminary ruling to levy a 31.33% tariff against Qingdao Wenkem, a Chinese industrial alcohol maker, for dumping its product on the US market.
The ruling came soon after a similar decision by the department over plastic shopping bag imports from China, Malaysia and Thailand.
In 2002, the US imported about 100 billion plastic bags, of which roughly 40% came from China.
The department will hand out a final ruling on the alcohol in early April and the shopping bags on June 1.