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WTO Admonishes US In India Steel Ruling

December 9, 2014

In a complicated appeals decision on Monday, the World Trade Organization reversed the majority of a July ruling against India that said US duties had wrongly penalized India for subsidizing steel imports of pipe produced by Tata Steel. The decision, however, also admonished the US for breaking Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) rules and called for the U.S. to comply with regulations.

The case stems from a 2011 petition by US pipe and tube producers asking for import relief. The US petition charged that low cost iron ore supplied to Tata Steel by state-owned miner NMDC was government subsidization.

The WTO Appellate Body said the USDOC’s determination that the NMDC is a public body was incorrect under WTO rules. It also disagreed with the U.S. law that mandates the USITC practice of cumulatively assessing the impact of dumped and subsidized imports in determining injury.

The American Iron and Steel Institute expressed strong concern with the WTO ruling.

“The WTO decision today significantly weakens the effectiveness of U.S. trade laws,” said AISI president and CEO, Thomas J. Gibson. “U.S. law expressly requires the ITC to cumulate dumped and subsidized imports when they are under simultaneous investigations. The WTO Appellate Body has once again created an obligation not agreed to by our trade negotiators, and this ruling will make it very difficult for domestic industries to obtain an effective remedy when facing both dumped and subsidized imports at the same time. This ruling is very detrimental to steel businesses and workers who continue to battle a flood of dumped and subsidized imports coming into this country unfairly— and at record levels.”

Gibson noted that steel imports captured 30 percent of the market share last month, according to Commerce Department data.