Sheet, plate subsidy, dumping cases advance
By Staff -- Purchasing, 9/2/1999
Commerce has found preliminary evidence that France, India, Indonesia, Italy, and South Korea had been subsidizing exports of cut-to-length steel plate to the U.S. by up to 23% of their value. At the same time, the International Trade Commission has found preliminary evidence that exporters from Brazil, Japan, China, and nine other countries have been selling cold-rolled steel sheet products in the U.S. at less than fair value.In the steel plate subsidy case, Commerce agreed with U.S. producers that exports were being subsidized. The department has set preliminary countervailing duties on exports from France (ranging from 3.77% to 5.42%); India (14.45%); Indonesia (ranging from zero to 17.38%); Italy (ranging from zero to 23.17%), and South Korea (ranging from 1.12% to 1.14%).
Commerce also is continuing its inquiry into a companion complaint from the U.S. industry group claiming that cut-to-length steel plate from the same five countries (plus Japan) has been sold in U.S. markets at up to 119% below fair value. All proposed duties are subject to final Commerce Department and ITC rulings.
In separate anti-dumping cases brought by the U.S. steel industry involving certain cold-rolled steel products, the ITC voted to continue investigations into complaints against Argentina, Indonesia, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Venezuela as well as Brazil, China, and Japan. The Commerce Department is scheduled to render preliminary decisions on those cases in early November.
The ITC rejected additional U.S. industry complaints that Indonesia, Thailand, and Venezuela had been subsidizing cold-rolled product exports. As a result, subsidy cases brought against those countries were ended. The panel did find evidence to support continued investigation against complaints that Brazil had been subsidizing its cold-rolled products. (Note: A top Brazil steel industry official attacked the U.S. decision to continue the probe into alleged state subsidies for the sector. The daily newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo quoted Antonio Jose Polanczyk, head of the Brazilian Steel Institute, as saying the decision was "a politically motivated attempt to trim our cold-rolled exports after already trimming our hot-rolled exports.")
The Steelworkers' union continues to complain that the administration has done little to combat low-priced imports upon which it blames thousands of layoffs. The issue has become a thorny one for President Clinton. For fear of starting a trade war that could hurt the ability of other U.S. industries to ship goods overseas, the administration has been reluctant to take action beyond granting steel industry tariff requests. What's more, each punitive tariff request, targeting one variety of steel at a time, takes nearly a year to investigate and costs the industry more than $1 million in legal fees. Industry officials fear that as tariffs are imposed on one product, foreign countries simply will shift to other products, necessitating additional costly filings.
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