Taiwan steel exports to the US have soared in recent years, jumping from 171,418 tonnes worth some US$201 million in 1997 to 1.1 million tonnes worth US$601 million in 2000, according to US Commerce Department figures. That has given Taiwan about 3 percent of the total US domestic steel market.
In response, the US government has taken a number of antidumping actions against Taiwan's imports. In July 1999, the Commerce Department found that a half dozen Taiwan steel companies dumped stainless steel sheet and strip on the US market by as much as 35 percent below fair market value. The penalized companies included Ta Chen Stainless Pipe Co (
Last December, the International Trade Commission found that the domestic steel industry was materially injured by Taiwan's and ten other countries' unfair exports of hot-rolled steel, a case involving An Feng Steel Co (
At the end of the process, the president could decide to put quotas on steel imports, which would be determined on a country-by-country basis, and possibly a company-by-company basis, senior US government trade officials said.
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