A US trade panel gave final approval on Monday to import duties on circular welded steel pipe from China in a case already being challenged by Beijing at the World Trade Organisation. The US International Trade Commission voted 6-0 in favour of the US Commerce Department imposing countervailing duties ranging up to 40.05 percent to offset Chinese government subsidies for its steel pipe sector.
The case was brought early this year by the US Steel Corp, a steelworkers union and two Texas pipe manufacturers. The product is used to ship oil and natural gas in pipeline and utility distribution systems. The Commerce Department set final countervailing duties in November of 40.05 percent on Liaoning Northern Steel Pipe Co, 35.63 percent on the Huludao group of companies and 37.84 percent on all other Chinese steel pipe companies.
The ITC vote on Monday clears the way for the Commerce Department to issue its countervailing duty order. The case is one of several brought by US industry since March 2007, when the Bush administration angered China by changing how the Commerce Department administers the US countervailing duty program against foreign subsidies.
Companies had been free to ask for "anti-dumping" duties against imports from China when they could show the goods were being sold in the United States at less than fair value. But the Commerce Department's longstanding policy had been that it was too difficult to calculate subsidies in "non-market economies," which discouraged companies from asking for countervailing duties on goods from China. Last year, the Bush administration said China's economy had evolved to the degree that both anti-dumping and countervailing duties were now appropriate trade remedy tools.