WTO zaps U.S. steel duties against European steel mills

By Staff -- Purchasing, 5/3/2007

Department of commerce trade officials have accepted a ruling by the World Trade Organization that requires global adoption of one formula for investigating allegation of dumping and imposing punitive duties. Because of the recalculation, most dumping duties on 15 steel products from European mills have been changed.

The duties eliminated were on hot-rolled sheet in coil from the Corus Group plants in the Netherlands (from 2.59%) and stainless steel bar from Ugitech in France (from 3.9%) and Corus Engineering Steels plants in the United Kingdom (from 4.48%). Duties were also eliminated or reduced on six other stainless steel bar and wire rod producers in the U.K., Italy, Germany, and Sweden, previously ranging from 4.76% to 32.32%. Duties on imports of cut-to-length carbon steel plate from Palini and Bertoli in Italy were reduced from 7.85% to 7.64%.

The case has been dragging on since early 2004 after the European mills appealed the punitive levies imposed at the request of U.S. steelmakers Nucor, Mittal Steel USA, Ipsco, Steel Dynamics and Carpenter Technology.

Basically, the world trade panel has determined that Commerce calculation of the margins of dumping when using a practice know as "zeroing," which is an average-to-average comparison methodology, "were inconsistent with U.S. obligations under the WTO agreements."

Dan Ikenson, policy analyst at the Center for Trade Policy Studies at the Cato Institute in Washington has written that "few trade policies engender more bitterness and international ill will than the U.S. anti-dumping law."