The Jones Act is in the news again. The Jones Act requires that all trade within the United States (including Puerto Rico) be carried on US-registered ships built in the United States and manned by crews composed of at least 90% American citizens or permanent residents. Last week, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas waived […]
The US Department of Commerce has issued its final determinations in the trade case investigating the dumping of OCTG imports from Mexico, Argentina, and Russia, and the subsidization of OCTG from Russia and South Korea. The investigations include both welded and seamless OCTG. Antidumping Case In the final results of the case investigating Mexico, Commerce […]
Trump-era Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods continue to be challenged in court even today, more than four years after they took effect. It’s remarkable that the tariffs have survived two presidential administrations that otherwise have little in common. President Biden and former President Trump have sharp differences when it comes to tone and to […]
To bring its results in line with a recent US Court of International Trade (CIT) decision, the US Department of Commerce is amending antidumping duties on imports of hot-rolled steel flat products from Australia. The move comes after Australia’s BlueScope Steel Ltd. was successful in challenging at the CIT Commerce’s final results of the first administrative review […]
The US Department of Commerce has released updated antidumping duty rates on certain pipe and tube imports after administrative reviews. It has also brought prior determinations in line with remand orders from the US Court of International Trade (CIT). OCTG Commerce set a 1.59% weighted-average dumping margin for the Interpipe group of companies in the preliminary results of […]
Antidumping and countervailing duty actions (also known as trade cases) have been a mainstay for protecting American industries from foreign competition. Many lawyers and economic consultants (I am among them) have made their living litigating these cases at Commerce Department, the US International Trade Commission, and the courts. More than 660 products are currently subject […]
The White House announced earlier this month, to no one’s surprise, that hundreds of companies and trade associations had expressed interest in continuing Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods. These expressions related only to the tariffs on $34 billion and $16 billion in trade value, the so-called “List 1” and “List 2” tariffs. The Office […]
The post-Cold War history of trade has certainly been turbulent. Readers may remember – if they are old enough – the euphoric days after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union fell apart. A key marker of the philosophical development explaining these cataclysmic events was an essay (1989) and book (1992) by Francis Fukuyama, […]
The House of Representatives on Friday approved the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on a party-line vote. This legislation, with only Democratic support, passed the Senate 51-50 last weekend. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden, who will sign it into law. This is by any measure a major piece of legislation. On the surface, […]
The US Department of Commerce recently recalculated the dumping margins for hot-rolled steel flat imports from Japan’s Nippon Steel. And while Nippon supports the remand results, it has also filed comments with the US Court of International Trade (CIT) regarding two additional complaints. On the remand order of the CIT, Commerce recalculated Nippon’s dumping rate […]
The House of Representatives on Friday approved the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on a party-line vote. This legislation, with only Democratic support, passed the Senate 51-50 last weekend. The bill now goes to President Joe Biden, who will sign it into law. This is by any measure a major piece of legislation. On the surface, […]
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) recently conducted hearings on the future of the Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as on the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China. Congress mandated the ITC investigation in response to calls for the tariffs to be reduced or eliminated to fight inflation. Unlike the […]
At the request of US pipe and tube producers, the US Department of Commerce has begun inquiries into the alleged circumvention of antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on a variety of products from a host of Asian countries. The request came from Atlas Tube Inc., Bull Moose Tube Co., Maruichi American Corp., Nucor Tubular Products […]
Additional antidumping and countervailing duty rates on imports of corrosion-resistant steel flat products have been updated by the US Department of Commerce. In the preliminary results of an administrative review looking at the period July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, Commerce updated the weighted-average dumping margins for three Taiwanese companies. Preliminary rates were set […]
The US Department of Commerce has issued the preliminary results of administrative reviews of the antidumping duties on corrosion-resistant steel flat products from China and South Korea, setting new import duty rates for the period July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021. In China’s review, Metalco was the sole company subject to the review. Because […]
The US International Trade Commission is not afraid to air out dirty laundry. On August 3, the USITC ruled to maintain the existing antidumping duties on imports of large residential washing machines from China. The duties have been in place since 2016. Under the current order, a large residential washing machine is considered to be any […]
Two major pieces of legislation were in the news this week. On the merits, both are scaled back substantially from earlier versions. But they are still major initiatives. The first has gone to President Biden for his signature, which is certain. That is the Chips for America Act, legislation that will provide substantial subsidies to […]
Eyes glaze over when trade laws are discussed. Despite this, I think it useful to delve a bit into details on occasion. A couple of recent developments prompt me to do so this week. First, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) voted unanimously last week that material injury was not done to the domestic industry […]
The US International Trade Commission has completed five-year sunset reviews of import duties on cold-rolled steel flat products from six countries. While determining that the duties on imports from five of the countries should be continued, the ITC also decided to allow the duties on Brazilian product to expire. The ITC conducted full sunset reviews […]
President Biden visited the Middle East last week. He touched down at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland early Sunday morning. Every presidential trip is and must be evaluated by what else is going on. This one was originally billed as routine: to attend a summit meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a group […]
US imports of corrosion-resistant steel products from five origins will continue to be subject to antidumping and countervailing duties for at least another five years. The US International Trade Commission concluded five-year sunset reviews of the duties on the imports from China, India, Italy, South Korea, and Taiwan, determining that allowing the duties to expire, […]
The buzz about the war in Ukraine has shifted. For the first three months of the conflict, Ukraine was hailed for a valiant struggle against a strong Russian foe. This valor is part of a larger struggle—the preservation of peace against the threat of violent conquest of weak nations by stronger ones. The stakes could […]
President Joe Biden has increased tariffs on some Russian and Belarussian steel, ferroalloys, and aluminum products to 35%, according to a presidential proclamation signed earlier this week and related documents. That’s a significant increase from already higher duties on some products that went into effect earlier this year when Russia and Belarus were stripped of […]
Tariffs on China have been controversial from the beginning. Passions run high, and it’s sometimes hard to find a middle ground on policy matters concerning China. The tariffs at issue are those imposed on Chinese goods under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. Over the next few months, the Biden administration […]
The World Trade Organization just concluded its 12th Ministerial Conference since the launch of the ill-fated Doha Development Agenda in 2001. The conference stayed in session past its scheduled end, and it reached agreements that surprised many WTO observers. A lot of credit goes to WTO Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala of Nigeria, who kept the ministers […]
Antidumping and countervailing duty (“trade remedy”) cases provide a rare glimpse into tariffs on imported goods that entered the US before they were subject to these burdensome duties. In the opinion of some, retroactively applied tariffs are always unfair to importers and their downstream US customers. Others disagree, believing that they deter imports competing with […]
The Biden administration, picking up where the “America First” Trump administration left off, extols the virtues of increased production here at home. There are many advantages to this approach, the president says. Increased production in the US will diminish reliance on China in critical materials for electric vehicles (rare earth metals and lithium, for example). […]
The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration is adjusting the antidumping duty margins on imports of carbon and alloy cut-to-length plate from South Korea. The agency is conducting an administrative review of the duties, evaluating the period May 1, 2020 through April 30, 2021, according to a Federal Register filing. POSCO is the only Korean […]
US President Joe Biden has officially implemented the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) to ease Section 232 restrictions on steel imports from the United Kingdom. Biden’s presidential proclamation, dated May 31, is clear that only steel melted and poured in the UK – up to 500,000 metric tons per year – is eligible to enter the US […]
The US will lift Section 232 tariffs from Ukrainian steel imports on Wednesday, June 1, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, the White House said. The waiver from the national security duties will remain in place until at least 11:59 pm Eastern on June 1, 2023. “In light of the ongoing security discussions and significant disruption […]