The Bureau of Foreign Trade yesterday confirmed that the US International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday issued a final decision on the imposition of anti-dumping tariffs on imports of steel pipe and tube from Taiwan and five other countries.
The other five countries affected by Washington-based commission’s ruling are India, South Korea, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam, the bureau said in a statement posted on the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Web site.
The ITC is to notify the US Department of Commerce about its decision on Tuesday next week, enabling the latter to make its anti-dumping order, the bureau said.
Chung Hung Steel Corp (中鴻鋼鐵), a subsidiary of China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Tension Steel Industries Co (天聲), and three other of the nation’s firms are among companies accused of dumping oil country tubular goods (OCTG) in the US market after US steel manufacturers led by US Steel Corp filed a petition with the commerce department in July last year.
The nation exports about 100,000 tonnes of OCTG to the US per year, of which Chung Hung accounts for between 30,000 tonnes and 40,000 tonnes.
Based on US Steel’s petition, these six countries represent more than 90 percent of the unfairly traded imports that entered the US market last year.
The Pittsburgh-based company said the dumped imports from foreign countries have caused material injury to the US market and the US worker.
The US Department of Commerce is in charge of both anti-dumping and anti-subsidy inquiries, while the US ITC is responsible for looking into the damage incurred by the US steel industry.
Last month, the department ruled to impose anti-dumping duties ranging between 9.89 percent and up to 15.75 percent against South Korean OCTG products.
Taiwanese OCTG makers face an anti-dumping tariff of 2.65 percent imposed by the US Department of Commerce in its preliminary decision earlier this year.
However, the ITC ruling on Friday imposes tariffs of up to 2.52 percent for Tension Steel and other companies, while sparing Chung Hung from the tariffs because the company was not found to have sold OCTG too cheaply in the US.
“Compared with other major importers such South Korean firms, Taiwanese companies were slapped with lower tariffs and therefore will face less of an impact, but companies still have to pay higher attention to the rising global trend of anti-dumping litigation,” the bureau said, adding that the government would offer litigation expenses for domestic firms involved.
Last month, the bureau said the Canada Border Services Agency had also initiated an anti-dumping investigation on OCTG made in or exported from Taiwan and eight other countries.
In a press release distributed by PRNewswire on Friday, US Steel Corp president and chief executive Mario Longhi said the company was pleased with the ITC’s affirmative final vote to impose anti-dumping orders against six of the nine countries that were accused of dumping OCTG on the US market.
“US Steel will continue to evaluate all of its options, including further litigation, with regards to Saudi Arabia, who was excluded from the International Trade Commission’s final vote as a result of an amended final determination from the Department of Commerce, and the two countries [Thailand and the Philippines], for which the ITC reached a negative determination,” the press release said.
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