Category: Trade Cases

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) has laid out a case for China’s failure to comply with its World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations, which it joined in 2001.

Deputy United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jayme White met on Wednesday with Mexico’s Under Secretary of Economy for Foreign Trade Alejandro Encinas, and discussed issues regarding the “surge” into the US of Mexican steel and aluminum imports.

Trade policy moves create great ironies sometimes. I often write about these ironies when the US acts against the interests of the country as a whole by protecting certain industries from international competition. But the US is not alone, especially in recent years as the World Trade Organization and the international geopolitical order have been […]

As the global trading system, which used to be “rules-based,” continues its slide toward the absence (defiance? disregard?) of rules, governments around the world are trying new things.

Last week the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, visited China for high-level meetings with the Chinese government. Her counterpart, Wang Wentao, China’s Commerce Minister, participated in the discussions. The four-day meeting included an announcement of two new working groups dealing with US-China economic relationships. The first was a forum to explain US export controls relating […]

The Biden administration issued three decisions last week that raise the question whether international trade will be harder or easier when it comes to infrastructure and commercial manufacturing in the US.

Mexico has decided to implement import tariffs on a number of products, among them, steel.

The office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) endorsed the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) panel report regarding the Section 232 duties against China on steel and aluminum. The report recognized the duties as “security measures,” rejecting China’s arguments against them.

The US Department of Commerce has published its preliminary findings in the antidumping (AD) trade case investigating tin mill products from China and Canada.

US plate producers were successful in their most recent effort to have the suspension agreement on cut-to-length plate imports from Russia removed and replaced with antidumping duties.

Steel trade continues to cause dissension among our friends, perhaps more so than our adversaries. The conflict between the US and EU is the most talked about, but it impacts others including Japan, Brazil and India.

After a sunset review, antidumping and countervailing duties on cut-to-length carbon-quality plate imports from India, Indonesia, and South Korea will remain in place for another five years.

Certain welded pipe and tube products being exported from Vietnam to the US are not circumventing antidumping duties on Taiwanese pipe products, the US Department of Commerce said this week.

Last week’s indictment of former president Donald Trump has ignited a blizzard of commentary. Not much of it has looked at the implications for the global trade order. Over the next year and a half, major trade and strategic initiatives will be negotiated with adversaries as well as allies: everything from the steel and aluminum negotiations with the EU to the war in Ukraine.

An unusual clash of powerful forces is in full swing over tin mill products. An antidumping petition was filed against eight countries in January of this year, while an anti-subsidy petition was filed against imports of tin mill products from China at the same time.

An unusual clash of powerful forces is in full swing over tin mill products. This flat-rolled steel product is used to make “tin cans” that hold a huge array of food products and other metal containers sold throughout the world. Tin mill products are generally made from cold-rolled steel that is coated with tin or […]

The US Department of Commerce this week ruled that critical circumstances exist in part in the trade case investigating illegal subsidies on tin mill products from China, meaning duties may be applied retroactively. Recall that Cleveland-Cliffs and the United Steelworkers (USW) union in January filed a trade case seeking countervailing duties for tin- and chromium-coated […]

In 2021, the US and EU called a timeout on their disputes about the US “national security” steel and aluminum tariffs and the resulting retaliatory measures by the EU. The agreement back then rescinded the Section 232 tariffs and replaced them with a “tariff-rate quota” that allowed a measure of tariff-free trade. In exchange, the […]

US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and a lead European Commission official met on Thursday in Brussels to discuss the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum, according to a press release from the USTR. In her meeting with EC EVP Valdis Dombrovskis, “Ambassador Tai stressed the importance of both sides generating ambitious proposals in […]

US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai and a lead European Commission official met on Thursday in Brussels to discuss the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum, according to a press release from the USTR.

Antidumping and countervailing duties on imports of steel wire rod from a handful of countries will remain in place for another five years. The US International Trade Commission (ITC) made its final decision in an expedited sunset review of the AD duties on wire rod from Belarus, Italy, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, […]

Every day, it seems, the headlines point to a general decline in the global situation. The more one reads, the more it becomes clear that our major issues are all interconnected. Addressing one will necessarily impact the others, either worsening or bettering them. Immigration is a prime example of this phenomenon. The two parties, and […]

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai will travel to Brussels next week to continue discussions on establishing a “Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum” with the European Union. Ambassador Tai will be in Belgium on July 20-21 to speak with European Commission EVP Valdis Dombrovskis. This is their second meeting in July, the USTR press […]

US-China relations have been in the news for at least the last five years. Cabinet officials are traveling to China, Chinese leaders are coming to the US, books are coming out and the European Union is dealing with the same quandary: should China be further isolated? Is the West too dependent on China? As I […]

US Trade Representative Katherine Tai met on Thursday in Cancun, Mexico, with Mexico’s Secretary of Economy, Raquel Buenrostro, where the two discussed confronting steel imports, among other issues. In a press release, the USTR said she spoke with Secretary Buenrostro regarding “the importance of addressing the recent surge of imports of steel and aluminum products, and […]

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said Wednesday it is conducting a fact-finding investigation to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of steel and aluminum made in the US. This is in response to a letter sent by US Trade Representative Katherine Tai on June 5 requesting a Section 332 investigation in the midst of ongoing […]

Raw steel production by US mills moved higher again last week, gaining ground for the second straight week, according to data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) on Monday, June 26. Domestic production stood at 1,758,000 net tons during the week ended June 24, up 0.9% from 1,743,000 tons the previous week. Production is […]

Our latest survey results indicate that the round of $50/ton ($2.50/cwt) sheet price hikes have a good chance of at least stabilizing prices or increasing them modestly. To be clear, SMU does not make formal forecasts. I’m basing this on what we’re seeing in past survey results following price hikes compared to what we’re seeing […]

US rig counts dropped for the week ended June 23, while Canada’s count increased, according to the latest data from oilfield services company Baker Hughes. This marks the eighth consecutive week-over-week decline in the US and fifth consecutive weekly increase in Canada.   The total US rig count stood at 682 active rigs as of June 23, off five from the […]

The US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA) is updating the antidumping duties on carbon and alloy cut-to-length steel plate imported from Belgium. In an administrative review of the AD duties, the ITA is considering the one-year period ended April 30, 2022. In its preliminary ruling, the agency set the weighted-average dumping margin at […]