US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced the initiation of new countervailing duty (CVD) and/or antidumping duty (AD) investigations of cold-drawn mechanical tubing from China, Germany, Italy, India, Korea, and Switzerland.

The petitioners, ArcelorMittal Tubular Products, Michigan Seamless Tube, LLC, PTC Alliance Corp., Webco Industries, Inc., and Zekelman Industries, Inc., filed a petition seeking relief from the effects of dumped and subsidized merchandise on the US industry on April 19.

“The department will act swiftly to ensure that everyone trades on a level playing field,” said Ross. “The Trump administration is committed full and fair assessment of the facts and to the enforcement of America’s trade laws. We will defend American workers and businesses with every tool at our disposal.”

The estimated dumping margins claimed by the petitioners range from 12.00 percent to 209.06 percent. Regarding subsidies, Commerce has initiated investigations into 34 separately alleged subsidy programs in China and 32 separately alleged subsidy programs in India.

In 2016, imports of cold-drawn mechanical tubing from China ($29.4 million), Germany ($38.8 million), India ($25 million), Italy ($11.9 million), Korea ($21.3 million) and Switzerland ($26.2 million) were valued at an estimated $152.6 million.

Commerce’s action launches investigations that will determine whether Chinese, German, Italian, Indian, Korean, and/or Swiss exporters of cold-drawn mechanical tubing have sold these products below fair value in the United States or, in the case of China and India, received unfair government subsidies.

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) will issue is preliminary injury determination on or before June 4. If it is affirmative, the investigations continue and Commerce is currently scheduled to issue its preliminary CVD determination on July 14 and its preliminary AD determination on September 26.

Should the Department of Commerce preliminarily find dumping and/or unfairly traded goods based on unfair subsidization, it will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits based on the preliminary AD/CVD rates from all US companies importing cold-drawn mechanical tubing from the listed countries.

If Commerce and the ITC ultimately issue affirmative final AD and CVD and injury determinations, Commerce will issue AD/CVD orders. However, if either agency does not find dumping, unfairly traded goods based on subsidization, or injury, the investigations will be terminated.