*EPF512 07/13/01
Antidumping Duties Imposed on Steel Bars from East Asia, Europe
(Case on raspberries from Chile advanced by USITC) (290)

Washington -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) has ruled that antidumping duties will be imposed on U.S. imports of steel concrete reinforcing bars from Belarus, China, South Korea, Latvia and Moldova.

In a 6-0 vote July 13, the commissioners made an affirmative final determination that the imports injured or threatened U.S. industry.

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

The Commerce Department made its determinations in June, calculating the dumping margins as follows:

-- Belarus, 114.53 percent.
-- China, 133 percent.
-- Korea: Dongkuk Steel Mill Co., Ltd./Korea Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., 22.89 percent; Hambo Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., 102.28 percent, and all others, 22.89 percent.
-- Latvia, 17.21 percent.
-- Moldova, 232.86 percent.

Dumping is the import of goods at a price below the home-market or a third-country price or below the cost of production. A dumping margin represents by how much the fair-value price exceeds the dumped price.

The value of U.S. imports of these steel bars from the five markets was withheld.

In another case, the commissioners voted 6-0 to continue a dumping investigation into imports of quick-frozen red raspberries from Chile. Without the affirmative preliminary determination the case would have ended at this early stage.

U.S. imports of red raspberries from Chile in 2000 amounted to about $9 million.

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