Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the affirmative preliminary determination in the antidumping duty (AD) investigation of imports of steel racks from China, determining that exporters have been dumping steel racks in the United States at a margins ranging from 18.08 to 144.50 percent.
As a result of today’s decision, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of steel racks from China based on these preliminary rates.
The petitioner estimates that imports of steel racks in 2017 were valued at approximately $200 million.
The petitioner is the Coalition for Fair Rack Imports, the members of which are Bulldog Rack Company (Weirton, WV), Hannibal Industries, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA), Husky Rack and Wire (Denver, NC), Ridg-U-Rak, Inc. (North East, PA), SpaceRak (Marysville, MI), Speedrack Products Group, Ltd. (Sparta, MI), Steel King Industries, Inc. (Stevens Point, WI), Tri-Boro Shelving & Partition Corp. (Farmville, VA), and UNARCO Material Handling, Inc. (Springfield, TN).
The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current Administration, Commerce has initiated 143 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – this is a 249 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration.
Antidumping and countervailing duty laws provide American businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of the unfair pricing of imports into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 470 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.
Commerce is scheduled to announce the final determination on or about July 18, 2019.
If Commerce’s final determination is affirmative, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will be scheduled to make its final injury determination on or about Sept. 3, 2019. If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination of dumping and the ITC makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an AD order. If Commerce makes a negative final determination of dumping or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.
Click HERE for a fact sheet on today’s decision.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Enforcement and Compliance unit within the International Trade Administration is responsible for vigorously enforcing U.S. trade law and does so through an impartial, transparent process that abides by international law and is based on factual evidence provided on the record.
Foreign companies that price their products in the U.S. market below the cost of production or below prices in their home markets are subject to antidumping duties. Companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments, such as grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks, or production inputs, are subject to countervailing duties aimed at directly countering those subsidies.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
