Anti-dumping duties slapped on Polish and Russian steel
Anti-dumping duties slapped on Polish and Russian steel
JAKARTA (JP): The government has slapped antidumping duties of
62 percent and 8.2 percent respectively on construction steel H
section and I section imported from Russia and Poland.
The antidumping duty imposed on imports of steel products from
Russia and Poland was stipulated in Finance Minister's Decree No.
188/KMK.01/1999, issued on May 31.
According to the decree, the duties will be effective for five
years starting Jan. 18, 1999. They are open for review after 12
months of implementation.
The antidumping ruling was prompted by a request from local
steel-maker PT Gunung Garuda, which complained that competitors
from the two countries sold their products in Indonesia at unfair
market prices.
To follow up the complaints, the government imposed temporary
countervailing duties on Jan. 18 against construction steel H
section and I section imported from the two countries.
The duties were effective until the Indonesia Antidumping
Committee completed an investigation into the matter.
The imposition of the temporary antidumping duties were to
prevent further losses to domestic industry during the
investigation period.
The committee's investigations uncovered convincing evidence
the two countries dumped construction steel here, causing severe
losses to the domestic industry.
Last month, the government imposed antidumping duties ranging
from between 4 percent to 68 percent on tin plates imported from
Australia, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
The measure was prompted by a request from PT Pelat Timah
Nusantara (Latinusa), the only local tin plate manufacturer,
which accused its competitors of selling their tin plates at
unfair prices.
The measure was objected by the Association of Indonesian Can
Producers, which said imposing high import duties was unfair
because they protected Latinusa at the expense of other
industries.
The high import surcharge would not only hurt can producers,
but also related downstream industries, such as canned food and
beverage producers, the association said.
U.S dumping
In a similar development, AFP reported on Thursday that a U.S
steel industry-union coalition had filed lawsuits against 12
steel-exporting countries, including Indonesia, alleging they
violated trade laws by "dumping" low-priced steel imports in the
U.S. market.
The complaint, filed with the U.S Commerce Department, seeks
the U.S government action against cold-rolled steel imports from
Argentina, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Slovakia,
south Afrika, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela.
The lawsuits seek a U.S. government ruling that the steel-
exporting countries conducted illegal activity and that "stiff"
duties be charged against future cold-rolled imports shipped from
these countries.
U.S steel makers said that their future has been imperiled by
a flood of imported steel -- cold-rolled, hot-rolled and
stainless -- at unfair dumping prices that were far below cost of
production.
They blamed the surge of allegedly illegal steel imports for
their weak financial results and the loss of jobs over the past
year or so. One of the petitioner, Weirton Steel Corp., said it
lost US$41 million during the past three quarters and laid off
425 workers as a result of steel imports.
Cold-rolled imported from the 12 countries amounted to 2.3
million tons last year, a 121 percent increase since 1996. Such
imports accounted 63 percent of all cold-rolled imported steel to
the U.S. in 1998, capturing 14 percent of the U.S. market, up
from an 11.3 percent market share in 1997.
The U.S. steel companies' lawsuits also alleged that Brazil,
Indonesia, Thailand and Venezuela subsidize their steel companies
that produce cold-rolled products.
The steel companies urged the federal government to fully
enforce trade laws and to avoid striking agreements with
defendant nations that would suspend the countries from paying
duties on certain imports.
The U.S Commerce Department announced in April anti-dumping
duties ranging between 17.86 percent to 67.14 percent on hot-
rolled steel imported from Japanese companies. (gis)