US firms threaten to sue Vietnam steel on anti-dumping

Expected on 22 October, DOC will make the final decision on initiating investigation or not. Image internet.

The Association has collected information from Vietnam producers to confirm and revise the data of the US. As we know, some producers of the Association have exported their cold-rolled steel and corrugated iron products on this market.

In detail, the VietnamCompetition Authority (under the Ministry of Industry and Trade) informed that on 23 June, 2015, after initiatinga dumping investigation on the same products from China and other countries, the US imposed an anti-dumping duty of 199.4% and anti-subsidy duty of 241.4%.

After the ruling, the volume of exports of products from China to the US has reduced rapidly, in contrast, those from Vietnam has increaseddramatically.

Due to doubtabout China’s steel being smuggled into Vietnam in order to export to the US, two US manufacturers - California Steel Industry and Steel Dynamic Inc asked DOC to invest Vietnam’s galvanized steel products andrequire deposits for the shipments equal to the anti-dumping duty and subsidy duty imposed onChinese products.

On 3 October, 2016the Vietnam Competition Authority informed that US steel manufacturers had sued DOC for anti-dumping duty and anti-subsidy duty on cold-rolled steel imported from Vietnam.

According to DOC, it would consider and make a final conclusion to investigate or not within 45 days from the receipt of the petition (expected on 22 October, 2016 for galvanized steel products and 10 November, 2016 for cold-rolling steel) and make adecision within 300 days.

Based on the US law, in order to add the third country’s product on the current duty (investing on anti-dumping duty), DOC have to consider some factors: imported products from the third country are the same asthe products that in the imposingcountry; before imported into the US, the products have been completed or manufactured from the imposing country’s products;the manufacturing process in the third country is “small or inconsiderable”; the value of the products thatare exported from the imposing country accounts for more than half of the value of the US’s imported products; DOC decides that investigation is necessary to prevent evasion.

Besides, DOC needs to consider the followingfactors: trend trading, whether manufacturersand exporters’raw materialsare associated with the third-party which used the raw materialsto complete or manufacture the US imported products, and whether the imposing country has increasingly exported raw materials into the third country after DOC initiated investigation and imposed duty.