U.S. sets duties on Chinese steel wire goods
Many companies hit with 438% countervailing duties
Tom Stundza -- Purchasing, 11/4/2009 1:59:26 PM
The Commerce Department has set preliminary duties ranging from 2% to 438% on hundreds of millions of dollars of imported steel wire decking from China to offset government subsidies.
The preliminary decision on Tuesday concerns welded-wire rack decking, a product used in industrial and other commercial storage rack systems. U.S. companies imported an estimated $317 million of such decking in 2008, an increase of 49% from 2006.
Commerce set countervailing duty rates of 2.02% for Dalian Huameilong Metal Products and 3.13% for Dalian Eastfound Metal Products, which cooperated in the trade investigation. However, a significant number of Chinese companies didn't complete the U.S. government's questionnaire and those companies were given an adverse countervailing duty rate of 437.73% "for non-responsiveness." Other Chinese companies not formally targeted in the case were given a preliminary countervailing duty of 2.58%.
The U.S. International Trade Commission must determine whether U.S. producers have been harmed, or are threatened with harm, by the imports for the duties to become final.
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