Commerce tags UAE with 'critical circumstances' in CORE trade case, South Africa spared

The department also found that critical circumstances did not apply to CORE from UAE producers Al-Ghurair Iron & Steel LLC and United Iron & Steel Company LLC.

The details of the Commerce Department’s decision were published in the Federal Register. You can find them here.

Background

US mills and the United Steelworkers (USW) union in February alleged critical circumstances existed when it came to CORE from the UAE and South Africa. Commerce defines critical circumstances as “massive imports” over a “relatively short period”.

The critical circumstances finding on some imports from the UAE means that material from certain mills will be subject to retroactive duties.

The retroactive duties apply 90 days prior to Commerce’s preliminary anti-dumping duty determination. That preliminary determination was scheduled to be made on April 3. It meant importers of CORE from certain UAE mills would have to pay antidumping duties on imports that entered the US starting on Jan. 3.

When this article was published, however, the preliminary anti-dumping duty rates had not been posted in the Federal Register. Sources familiar with the matter said they did not expect to see the rates posted until Friday.

The original anti-dumping petition was made by domestic mills and the USW in September. They filed the case against Australia, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, the UAE, and Vietnam.

Subsidy investigations are also ongoing against Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and Vietnam. Commerce set preliminary countervailing duty (CVD) rates in February.