The US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced on Wednesday that the commerce department is starting antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations to check if India and China are dumping stainless steel flanges in the US. It will also check if the two countries are receiving unfair subsidies.
“The Department will act swiftly, while assuring a full and fair assessment of the facts, to ensure that everyone trades on a level playing field,” Ross said. “The Trump administration will defend American workers and businesses with every tool at our disposal.”
The statement by the department said it has received complaints from Coalition of American Flange Producers and its members – Core Pipe Products, Inc. (Carol Stream, Ill.) and Maass Flange Corporation (Houston, Texas) on August 16. The petitions from the complainants alleged that suppliers from India get dumping margins ranging from about 78 percent to 145 percent. For Chinese suppliers, these margins were from about 100 percent to more than 257 percent.
The department will initiate action if the suppliers from India and China are found indulging in unfair trade. “If the Commerce Department determines that stainless steel flanges from China and India are being dumped into the U.S. market and/or receiving unfair government subsidies, and if the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) determines that dumped and/or unfairly subsidized U.S. imports of stainless steel flanges from China and India are causing injury to the U.S. industry, the Commerce Department will impose duties on those imports in the amount of dumping and/or unfair subsidization found to exist,” the statement said.
The department has increased supervision to check irregularities in business conducted by foreign companies. Between January 2017 and September 6, 2017, it has started 62 anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations, an increase of 41 percent over the previous year.
Countervailing duties are put against companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments. These duties are used to directly counter those subsidies.
Source: Americanbazaaronline.com
