WASHINGTON,
July 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday voted
to extend U.S. anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on cold-rolled flat steel
from China, India, Japan, South Korea and Britain for five more years but
revoked such duties on the same products from Brazil.
The
commission's decision in its five-year "sunset" review marks a
significant victory for domestic steelmakers, locking in hefty duties that will
keep Chinese-produced flat steel largely out of the U.S. market for the period.
Cold-rolled
flat steel, used in automotive and appliance manufacturing, is among the
highest-volume and most profitable products for domestic steelmakers, which
were dramatically losing market share to foreign producers before the duties
were imposed in 2016.
Additional
"Section 232" national security tariffs of 25% were imposed by former
President Donald Trump two years later, and the ITC's decision does not affect
those.
According
to the Commerce Department, weighted average anti-dumping duty rates on imports
of cold rolled flat steel are currently 265.8% for China, 71.35% for Japan,
28.4% for South Korea, 25.2% for Britain and 7.6% for India.
The
commission determined that removing the duties from all but Brazilian
cold-rolled flat steel would "be likely to lead to continuation or
recurrence of material injury" to domestic producers within a
"reasonable period of time," it said in a statement.
The
ITC said removing the duties from Brazil would not likely result in such
injury, reversing a finding https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/10/05/2021-21658/cold-rolled-steel-flat-products-from-brazil-china-india-japan-republic-of-korea-and-united-kingdom by
the Commerce Department to keep 35.4% anti-dumping duties in place.
The
American Iron and Steel Institute, a major steelmaker trade group, said it
disagreed with the decision to end the Brazil steel duties but the panel
"made the right call" in preserving the duties on Chinese, Japanese,
South Korean, Indian and British cold-rolled flat steel.