Trade Cases
Commerce to lower import duties on welded pipe from UAE
Written by Laura Miller
January 9, 2024
The US Department of Commerce will likely be lowering the antidumping duty (AD) rates on imports of welded pipe from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a Federal Register filing.
Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) is conducting an administrative review of the AD order on circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe imports from the UAE.
In the review, the ITA preliminarily determined that the UAE made sales of the subject pipe in the US at prices below normal value during the period of review, Dec. 1, 2021, through Nov. 30, 2022.
The ITA set initial weighted-average dumping margins of 0.96% for the UAE’s Conares Metal Supply and 1.09% for Universal Tube and Plastic Industries, THL Tube and Pipe Industries, and KHK Scaffolding and Framework. Ajmal Steel Tubes & Pipes, KD Industries, and TSI Metal Industries were assigned margins of 1.06%.
These preliminary rates are lower than the ones the companies received in the prior one-year period of review: 5.06% for Ajmal; 2.63% for Universal, THL, and KHK; and 3.63% for Conares, KD, and TSI.
The agency is asking interested parties to submit comments by Feb. 7. It intends to make its final determination in this review by May 7.
A sunset review of these duties was completed in 2022. It was determined that the duties should remain in place for another five years on the pipe imports from the UAE, Oman, and Pakistan.
Laura Miller
Read more from Laura MillerLatest in Trade Cases
Price: How did ‘Buy Clean’ get switched to ‘Buy Dirty’?
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) appropriated more than $4 billion to the General Services Administration (GSA) and Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) for “Buy Clean” programs. The statute makes clear that GSA and FHWA purchases under these programs are limited to those with “substantially lower” emissions. There is no ambiguity in that requirement. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has defined “substantially lower” to mean products with the lowest 20% of embodied emissions when compared to similar materials.
Domestic producers prevail in Japanese tin mill product trade case
A vote on Friday by the International Trade Commission (ITC) ensures that antidumping duties on certain steel sheet imports from Japan will continue for the mid-term.
Op-Ed: Strong trade enforcement builds prosperity and security
Tariffs on unfairly traded steel and other products help to stabilize America’s most important industries, safeguard tens of thousands of jobs, and protect national security. My union, the United Steelworkers (USW), never seeks these remedies lightly. And presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, implement them only after diligent investigations documenting the harm that foreign adversaries intentionally inflict upon our country with dumping, overproduction and other kinds of trade cheating. I don’t think Lewis Leibowitz considered these points while criticizing tariffs in his excessively pro-free-trade column, “Where is the voice of the consumer?” on May 5.
Leibowitz on trade: Where is the voice of the consumer?
The election campaign is white-hot right now, and the Biden administration is touting its protectionist message. Just this past week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) touted this message. In a release entitled “What They are Saying,” USTR quoted many of the usual protectionist groups praising government action against Chinese steel exports and shipbuilding. Consuming industries in the United States, which employ many times the American workers as the industries seeking trade protection, were not mentioned.
Price: Why have steel emissions policies forgotten about recycling?
Steelmaking currently accounts for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The only way to achieve net zero goals is to significantly reduce steel emissions worldwide. And there is no way to do that without recycling.