On September 6, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the affirmative preliminary determinations in the antidumping duty (AD) investigations of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Belarus, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“The dumping of goods below market value in the United States is something the Trump Administration takes very seriously,” said Secretary Ross. The Department of Commerce will continue to stand up for American workers and business’s in order to ensure that everyone trades on a level playing field.”
The Department of Commerce determined that exporters from Belarus have sold carbon and alloy steel wire rod in the United States at 280.02 percent. The Department determined that exporters from Russia have sold carbon and alloy steel wire rod in the United States at 436.80 percent to 756.93 percent less than fair value based on factual evidence provided by the interested parties. The Department determined that exporters from the UAE have sold carbon and alloy steel wire rod in the United States at 84.10 percent less than fair value based on factual evidence provided by the interested parties.
The Department of Commerce based these rates on adverse facts available due to the failure by the Belarusian, Russian and UAE companies to respond to requests for information. Since the companies under investigation did not provide the information necessary to determine the level of dumping, the Commerce Department relied on the information provided in the U.S. industry’s petitions, in accordance with its longstanding practice.
Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Belarus, Russia, and the UAE based on these preliminary rates.
In 2016, imports of carbon and alloy steel wire rod from Belarus, Russia, and the UAE were valued at an estimated $10.4 million, $32.3 million, and $7 million, respectively.
The petitions were filed on behalf of Gerdau Ameristeel US, Inc. (Tampa, Fla.), Nucor Corporation (Charlotte, N.C.), Keystone Consolidated Industries (Dallas, Texas), and Charter Steel (Saukville, Wisc.).
NEXT STEP:
The Department of Commerce is currently scheduled to announce its final AD determinations on November 21.
The U.S. International Trade Commissions (ITC) is conducting parallel investigations to determine if the American producers have been harmed by the carbon and alloy steel wire rod imports from Belarus, Russia, and/or the UAE. If the Commerce Department’s final determinations are affirmative, and the ITC makes affirmative final injury determinations, the Commerce Department will issue antidumping orders. If the ITC does not find that U.S. producers have been harmed, then the investigations will end, and no duties will be collected.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Enforcement and Compliance unit within the International Trade Administration is responsible for vigorously enforcing U.S. trade laws and does so through an impartial, transparent process grounded in U.S. law that reflects international rules and is based solely on factual evidence.
Foreign companies that price their products in the U.S. market below the cost of production or below prices in their home markets are subject to AD.
Companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments in the form of grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks and production inputs are subject to “countervailing duties” (CVD) aimed at directly countering those subsidies.
From January 20, 2017, through September 6, 2017, Commerce has initiated 62 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – a 41 percent increase over the previous year. For this same period in 2016, Commerce initiated 44 AD and CVD investigations. Commerce currently maintains 407 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.
source: commerce.gov |
