US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has announced the affirmative preliminary determinations in the countervailing duty (CVD) investigations, finding that exporters of cold-drawn mechanical tubing from China and India received countervailable subsidies of 33.31 to 35.69 percent, and 3.04 percent and 8.09 percent, respectively.

The Commerce Department will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of cold-drawn mechanical tubing from China and India based on these preliminary rates.

In 2016, cold-drawn mechanical tubing from China and India were valued at an estimated $29.4 million and $25 million, respectively.

The petitioners are ArcelorMittal Tubular Products (OH), Michigan Seamless Tube, LLC (MI), PTC Alliance Corp. (PA), Webco Industries, Inc. (OK), and Zekelman Industries, Inc. (PA).

From January 20, 2017, through September 18, the Commerce Department has initiated 65 antidumping (AD) and CVD investigations – a 48 percent increase over the previous year. For this same period in 2016, Commerce initiated 44 AD and CVD investigations. The Commerce Department currently maintains 411 AD and CVD duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.

CVD laws provide US businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of unfair subsidization of imports into the United States. Imports from companies that receive unfair subsidies from their governments in the form of grants, loans, equity infusions, tax breaks and production inputs are subject to “countervailing duties” aimed at directly countering those subsidies. In fiscal year 2016, the United States collected $1.5 billion in duties on $14 billion of imported goods found to be underpriced, or subsidized by foreign governments.

Unless the final determination is aligned with the concurrent antidumping duty investigations, Commerce is currently scheduled to announce its final CVD determinations on December 4, 2017.

If the Commerce Department makes an affirmative final determination of subsidization and the US International Trade Commission (ITC) makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue a CVD order. If the Commerce Department makes a negative final determination of subsidization or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.