Posted on 25 Nov 2011
THE UNITED States International Commission on Trade (USITC) is considering lifting a current anti-dumping duty order against certain stainless steel imports from the Philippines, Malaysia, and Italy ahead of the measure’s expiration next month, the agency said in federal register notice dated Nov. 1.
The second review of the anti-dumping duty comes several months after US Homeland Security department announced that it would pay out subsidies to four American steel manufacturers supposedly harmed by the cheap stainless steel butt-weld pipe fittings shipped from the three economies.
"The Commission is now conducting second reviews to determine whether revocation of the orders would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury to the domestic industry within a reasonably foreseeable time. It will assess the adequacy of interested party responses to this notice of institution to determine whether to conduct full or expedited reviews," the notice read.
The USITC is currently accepting reports and opinions from stakeholders and other interested parties on the issue until Dec. 1 to aid the review.
Once lifted, steel exporters will no longer have to pay anti-dumping duty deposits for shipped stainless steel butt-weld pipe fittings.
First issued by the US Commerce department in February 2001, the order was set to lapse five years later but it was renewed for another five years in December 2006. The first phase of the duty order coincided with the implementation of the controversial Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, commonly known as the Byrd Amendment.
The Byrd Amendment mandated the collection of countervailing duties from importers accused of selling goods at unfairly low prices in the US market. The duties were then used as "offset subsidies" for the affected domestic firms. Countervailing duties are a special type of anti-dumping measure designed to protect local producers from exporters subsidized by theirgovernments.
The act was declared illegal by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2002 prompting the US government to repeal it in 2006. But the current administration continues to grant such subsidies to complaints made before Oct. 1, 2007, because funds for the payouts are usually collected several years after the import, a report by the European Commission for Trade claimed.
