*EPF509 03/03/00
USITC Rejects Dumping Duties on Six Markets' Cold-Rolled Steel
(Commissioners vote 5-1 that U.S. industry not injured) (350)
By Bruce Odessey
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has rejected antidumping duties on cold-rolled steel from Argentina, Brazil, Japan, Russia, South Africa and Thailand.

In a 5-1 vote March 3, the commissioners also rejected countervailing duties on the steel from Brazil in a parallel subsidies case.

Imposition of antidumping duties requires affirmative final determinations both from the U.S. Department of Commerce that dumping occurred and from the USITC that the imports injured U.S. industry.

In January the Commerce Department made affirmative final determinations on dumping, estimating dumping margins up to 73 percent in Russia, 80 percent in Thailand and 53 percent in Japan.

But the USITC commissioners made negative determinations, ruling that the imports did not injure or threaten U.S. industry.

Similarly, in the countervailing duties case, the Commerce Department made a determination that Brazil was subsidizing the U.S. steel imports. The USITC determination rejected also countervailing duties on that Brazilian steel equal to the estimated net subsidy rate.

A Commerce Department spokesman said the USITC determination terminates the U.S. agreement recently negotiated with Russia suspending the dumping investigation into cold-rolled steel from that country.

"However, this product should continue to be covered in the context of the executive agreement negotiated last year in which it [Russia] has a quantitative limitation on the amount of this product it can ship to the United States," the spokesman said.

In 1998 U.S. imports of cold-rolled steel amounted to $220.2 million from Russia, $186 million from Japan, $76.2 million from Brazil, $56.5 million from South Africa, $32 million from Argentina and $23.2 million from Thailand.

Parallel dumping cases on cold-rolled steel from other markets are still pending. Final Commerce determinations are expected March 14 on Turkey, March 30 on Venezuela, and May 23 on China, Indonesia, Slovakia and Taiwan.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)
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