Petition Filed for New AD/CVD on Unwrought Palladium From Russia
A domestic producer recently filed a petition with the Commerce Department and the International Trade Commission requesting antidumping and countervailing duties be imposed on unwrought palladium imported from Russia. Commerce now will decide whether to begin AD/CVD investigations, which could result in the imposition of permanent AD/CVD orders and the assessment of AD and CVD on importers. Stillwater Mining Company and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, requested the investigation.
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The petitioners described palladium as a "critical mineral that is primarily used in catalytic converters for automobiles, but it is also used to produce chemical and petroleum catalysts, electronics, dental implements, and jewelry."
Proposed Scope
The petition proposes the following scope for the investigations:
"The scope of these investigations is unwrought palladium from Russia. Unwrought palladium includes palladium, whether or not refined, in the form of ingots, blocks, lumps, billets, cakes, slabs, pigs, cathodes, anodes, briquettes, cubes, sticks, grains, sponge, pellets, shot, powder, and similar forms. The scope does not cover rolled, forged, drawn or extruded products, tubular products or cast or sintered forms which have been machined or processed otherwise than by simple trimming, scalping, or descaling.
"Unwrought palladium is covered by the scope regardless of production method. The scope includes unwrought palladium produced through ore extraction, unwrought palladium produced by recycling palladium-containing scrap, unwrought palladium produced by any other method, and blends of unwrought palladium produced by different methods.
"The scope includes unwrought palladium that is commingled with unwrought palladium from sources not subject to these investigations or commingled with other metals. Only the subject unwrought palladium component of such commingled products is covered by the scope of these investigations.
"Subject merchandise includes merchandise matching the above description that has been finished, packaged, or otherwise processed in a third country, including by refining, grinding, commingling, adding or removing additives, or performing any other finishing, packaging, or processing that would not otherwise remove the merchandise from the scope of the investigations if performed in the subject country.
"The covered merchandise is currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) at subheading 7110.21.0000. Although the HTSUS code is provided for convenience and customs purposes, the written description of the covered merchandise is dispositive.”
ITC and Commerce to Accept Comments Before Initiating Investigation
The Commerce Department and the ITC will accept comments on domestic industry support for the petitions to determine whether the petitions meet the dual requirements of support by domestic producers or workers accounting for (1) at least 25% of the total production of the domestic-like product and (2) more than 50% of the production of the domestic-like product produced by that portion of the industry expressing support for, or opposition to, the petition. If the petitions meet these requirements, among others, the ITC and Commerce will initiate AD/CVD investigations.