U.S. mulls steel trade complaints against RI
U.S. mulls steel trade complaints against RI
WASHINGTON (AP): The Commerce Department will pursue the U.S.
steel industry's trade complaints against six countries including
Indonesia accused of illegally pricing cut-to-length steel
plates.
The inquiry was triggered by a U.S. International Trade
Commission vote Friday finding evidence that imports from France,
India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan and South Korea have hurt domestic
producers.
The cases are part of a second round of complaints filed by
major producers that have been struggling against a recent surge
in steel imports. In the first round, the government is
considering tariffs on hot-rolled carbon steel from Japan and
Brazil.
"Today's vote represents another step by the U.S. steel
industry and its workers to pursue aggressively all available
courses of action," said Paul Wilheim, president of U.S. Steel
Group.
The victory was only a partial one, however. The trade
commission, an independent fact-finding agency, voted to drop
cases against the Czech Republic and Macedonia after finding
their shipments of cut-to-length plates to be negligible -- less
than 3 percent of overall imports to the United States.
Domestic steel producers and steelworkers have blamed the
imports for thousands of layoffs and three U.S. company
bankruptcies.
Although imports have since dropped, steel producers continue
to press the administration and Congress for help.
The imports reached record highs last year as the Asian
economic crisis reduced demand for steel abroad and forced
foreign producers to turn to U.S. markets.
In February, five steel producers and the United Steelworkers
of America accused the eight countries of illegally dumping cut-
to-length steel in the United States at prices below production
costs or home-market prices.
They also accused France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Macedonia
and South Korea of unfairly subsidizing their producers to
artificially lower prices.
A Japanese steel executive, Fujio Ono, has called the cases
unjustified, saying market forces and not artificial trade
practices were responsible for the import surge.
The Commerce Department has until mid-May to issue a
preliminary finding on subsidies and until late July to initially
rule on dumping.
Cut-to-length plate, thicker than the widely used hot-rolled
variety, is used in agricultural and construction equipment,
bridges, ships, railcars and buildings.
In the hot-rolled cases, the Commerce Department has issued
preliminary dumping findings against Japan, Russia and Brazil.
Final rulings are expected by summer.
Japan and Brazil face tariffs of up to 71 percent if the
findings are affirmed and found to threaten U.S. industry. Russia
has reached a deal with the United States to avoid tariffs by
voluntarily curtailing shipments.