Congressional Steel Caucus Calls for Commerce to Use Trade Remedies in CTL Steel Plate Cases
The Commerce Department should help curb the continuing “onslaught” of U.S. imports of carbon and alloy steel cut-to-length (CTL) plate through some pending proceedings, Congressional Steel Caucus Chairman Tim Murphy, R-Pa., and Vice Chairman Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., wrote in a letter to Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker (here). The letter cites 1 million tons of CTL plate worth more than $700 million imported from 12 countries in 2015, and alludes to a petition by three U.S. manufacturers in April calling for the Commerce Department to impose antidumping and countervailing duties on carbon and alloy steel CTL plate from those nations (see 1604080019). Commerce recently imposed AD duty cash requirements on CTL plate from South Africa, Brazil and Turkey (see 1609210022), and CV duty cash deposits on China (see 1609130025).
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The lawmakers requested that Commerce carefully consider American steelworkers as the agency contemplates future determinations. “Congress has worked hard to give Commerce new tools to evaluate trade remedy cases, including enhanced discretion to apply adverse facts available where companies or their governments have failed to cooperate,” Murphy and Visclosky wrote. “It is critical that Commerce utilize these tools in calculating the appropriate level of duties in the ongoing CTL plate investigations.” The lawmakers said recent trade remedies in response to injurious imports of corrosion-resistant, cold-rolled and hot-rolled steel have helped U.S. producers, but steel producers “continue to suffer.” The Leveling the Playing Field Act enacted in June 2015 is geared toward giving Commerce more latitude to use “adverse facts available," which allows the Commerce Department flexibility in assessing AD/CVD rates, and gives it ultimate discretion to apply the highest available countervailing subsidy rates or dumping margins in proceedings where a foreign entity provides insufficient information or fails to cooperate.