American producers, including U.S. Steel Corp., are triumphing an announcement from the U.S. Commerce Department, which imposed anti-dumping duties to impact about $1.1 billion of Chinese steel pipes annually.
This regulatory decision marks one of the largest U.S trade complaints filed on record against China, whereby imports of circular-welded, carbon-quality steel pipe entering the United States will incur 30 percent to 99 percent in trade tariffs.
“China’s government and exporters are being told we are fed up with their cheating on our fair trade laws and penalties for these transgressions are long overdue,” said United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard in a statement after the decision. USW has been spearheading the inquiry and represents the largest steel labor union in North America with 705,000 members. Other U.S. producers that championed the inquiry include U.S. Steel, Maverick Tube Corp., Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, TMK IPSCO, V&M Star LLP, V&M TCA, and Wheatland Tube Corp. Imports of pipes are usually used in oil and gas wells.
Thirty-eight Chinese companies, including Tianjin Pipe International Economic and Trading Corp., must pay a 29.94 percent tariff, while Jiangsu Changbao Steel Tube Co. and remaining producers are charged 99.14 percent.
“We pretty now much have a minimum 43 percent duty against every OCTG (oil country tubular goods) import from China,” said Roger Schagrina, the attorney representing the steelworkers and five of the seven companies involved in the U.S. inquiry, in an interview with Reuters.
The decision also coincides with U.S. oil and natural gas industry plans to gear up production and should help thousands of laid-off workers in the OCTG, steel, ore-iron, and coking sectors get their jobs back, he said.
The U.S. International Trade Commission in December 2009 determined that the Chinese government was subsidizing the pipe producers, and set duties currently being collected at levels ranging from 10.3 percent to 15.8 percent on top of the prices the steel pipe was being sold for in the United States. However, if the commission reevaluates domestic producers to be adequately buffered from the lower-priced Chinese imports, anti-dumping duties may be stopped.
The U.S trade watchdog’s decision was made on the eve of Chinese leader Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington for an unrelated agenda—the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama. The Chinese communist regime is no stranger to such trading protection schemes, given that a record number of such instances are occurring worldwide, says the World Bank.
According to the Commerce Department’s statistics, China is the second-biggest trading partner of the United States after Canada, and its trade surplus stood at $226.8 billion with the United States in 2009, which is in excess of the combined deficit the United States owes to its next nine largest trading partners. In summary, the Chinese opted for a trade deficit with the rest of the world to accumulate a surplus against the United States.
Trade tensions between the United States and China have been intense, from Google Inc. pulling out of its China operations, to import tariffs imposed on tires and anti-dumping duties being imposed on U.S. chicken feet into China (the largest market for U.S. chickens). In hindsight, the trading pattern of China does denote that the country is still somewhat reliant on the American market.
This regulatory decision marks one of the largest U.S trade complaints filed on record against China, whereby imports of circular-welded, carbon-quality steel pipe entering the United States will incur 30 percent to 99 percent in trade tariffs.
“China’s government and exporters are being told we are fed up with their cheating on our fair trade laws and penalties for these transgressions are long overdue,” said United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard in a statement after the decision. USW has been spearheading the inquiry and represents the largest steel labor union in North America with 705,000 members. Other U.S. producers that championed the inquiry include U.S. Steel, Maverick Tube Corp., Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel, TMK IPSCO, V&M Star LLP, V&M TCA, and Wheatland Tube Corp. Imports of pipes are usually used in oil and gas wells.
Thirty-eight Chinese companies, including Tianjin Pipe International Economic and Trading Corp., must pay a 29.94 percent tariff, while Jiangsu Changbao Steel Tube Co. and remaining producers are charged 99.14 percent.
“We pretty now much have a minimum 43 percent duty against every OCTG (oil country tubular goods) import from China,” said Roger Schagrina, the attorney representing the steelworkers and five of the seven companies involved in the U.S. inquiry, in an interview with Reuters.
The decision also coincides with U.S. oil and natural gas industry plans to gear up production and should help thousands of laid-off workers in the OCTG, steel, ore-iron, and coking sectors get their jobs back, he said.
The U.S. International Trade Commission in December 2009 determined that the Chinese government was subsidizing the pipe producers, and set duties currently being collected at levels ranging from 10.3 percent to 15.8 percent on top of the prices the steel pipe was being sold for in the United States. However, if the commission reevaluates domestic producers to be adequately buffered from the lower-priced Chinese imports, anti-dumping duties may be stopped.
The U.S trade watchdog’s decision was made on the eve of Chinese leader Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington for an unrelated agenda—the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by President Barack Obama. The Chinese communist regime is no stranger to such trading protection schemes, given that a record number of such instances are occurring worldwide, says the World Bank.
According to the Commerce Department’s statistics, China is the second-biggest trading partner of the United States after Canada, and its trade surplus stood at $226.8 billion with the United States in 2009, which is in excess of the combined deficit the United States owes to its next nine largest trading partners. In summary, the Chinese opted for a trade deficit with the rest of the world to accumulate a surplus against the United States.
Trade tensions between the United States and China have been intense, from Google Inc. pulling out of its China operations, to import tariffs imposed on tires and anti-dumping duties being imposed on U.S. chicken feet into China (the largest market for U.S. chickens). In hindsight, the trading pattern of China does denote that the country is still somewhat reliant on the American market.
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