The Trump administration continues to jeopardize the success of future talks with China to resolve the ongoing trade war by imposing final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties against Chinese aluminum exports.
Acting on orders of the U.S. president, the Department of Commerce has made it perfectly clear it will impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties ranging from 96.3 percent to 176.2 percent on Chinese common alloy aluminum sheet (CAAS) products.
Heidi Brock, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association, said the organization is "extremely pleased" with the decision.
CAAS is used in applications such as electrical, infrastructure, building and construction, marine, and transportation. It's a thin flat-rolled aluminum product with a thickness of 6.3 mm or less, but greater than 0.2 mm, in coils or cut-to-length, regardless of width.
In 2017, imports of CAAS from China were valued at $900 million. China's aluminum exports declined by 3.6 percent from September to 482,000 metric tons in October, the lowest level since May.
The U.S. judgment is the first time since 1985 that final duties were issued in a trade remedy case initiated by the U.S. government. The Trump administration has promised to be more aggressive in its trade enforcement measures by having the Commerce Department launch more anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on behalf of private industry.
The United States will do everything within its power under U.S. law to impede the entry of dumped or subsidized goods into the United States, said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
On the other hand, the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association is lodging a no-injury legal defense in a bid to overturn the duties. We think we are causing no harm to the United States, and we're waiting for the USITC to judge, said Wen Xianjun, vice president of the association.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) will, however, make its final injury judgment on Dec. 20. In January 2018, USITC determined there is a reasonable indication that the U.S. aluminum industry has been materially injured because imports of common alloy aluminum sheet from China are allegedly subsidized and sold in the United States at less than fair value.
USITC Chairman Rhonda K. Schmidtlein, Vice Chairman David S. Johanson, and Commissioners Irving A. Williamson and Meredith M. Broadbent voted to go ahead with the investigation on alleged Chinese dumping.
Due to the Commission's affirmative determinations, the Commerce Department continued with its anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations. The investigations were Nos: 701-TA-591 and 731-TA-1399 (Preliminary)
The final aluminum sheet duties, however, are lower than those first imposed in April and July. The initial combined range was 198.4 percent to 280.5 percent.
U.S. aluminum industry firms testified in December 2017 about a surge "in low-priced, unfairly traded imports of common alloy sheet from China." These firms included Aleris Corporation, Arconic Inc, Constellium NV, Jupiter Aluminum Corp, JW Aluminum Company and Novelis Corporation.
These firms claimed the volume of CAAS imports jumped by nearly 750 percent over the last decade, and by more than 91 percent between 2014 and 2017. This dumping resulted in "significant market share gains by Chinese imports at the direct expense of the U.S. industry.
