Trade Cases

Circumvention Decision Put Off to Oct. 30
Written by John Packard
October 17, 2017
The U.S. government has advised the steel industry that it will delay its preliminary determination on the circumvention trade suit against Vietnam until Oct. 30. The suit alleges Vietnam was assisting China to circumvent the U.S. antidumping and countervailing duties assigned to China in 2015/2016. Domestic steelmakers say the U.S. government should no longer recognize “significant transformation,” which is when a steel mill takes a coil and rolls it to make another steel product. In the case of Vietnam, they were converting Chinese hot rolled substrate to cold rolled and/or coated steels, or they were coating cold rolled to coated products (galvanized and Galvalume).
No reason was provided for the delay. Most likely, the media will not be advised on the determination until Tuesday, Oct. 31.

John Packard
Read more from John PackardLatest in Trade Cases

Leibowitz on Trade: The New World Orders
The question of the new world order was on many minds last week when I spoke on another SMU Community Chat. The short answer is that nobody knows in detail what the effects of all the economic and geopolitical developments will be.

Canadian agency launches OCTG import probe
Canada has launched an investigation into the alleged dumping of imports of oil country tubular goods (OCTG) by five countries – Korea, the Philippines, Turkey, Mexico, and the United States.

US and China delay reciprocal tariffs, Section 232 tariffs stand
US President Donald Trump extended the US and China’s 90-day pause on planned reciprocal tariffs on Monday.

Price on Trade: 40% Brazil tariffs, Section 232 copper program, and misplaced carbon claims
The administration continues to negotiate deals with US trading partners, and the reciprocal tariff program appears poised for further modification. This week, we focus on other important developments that may have received less media attention.

Leibowitz on trade: Trump’s reciprocal tariffs face mounting legal challenges
The tariffs amount to a wholesale transformation of US trade policy from one promoting increasing international interaction to one of restricting trade to serve national strategic goals.