Wednesday 30 December 2009| by: Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers
Washington - A ruling Wednesday by the U.S. International Trade Commission in favor of domestic steelmakers and against Chinese exporters of tubular steel points to a likely trend in 2010 - more trade action against the export powerhouse.
"There's steam on China, and it's not just the United States," said Michelle Applebaum, a steel expert who publishes the Steel Market Intelligence report.
In a unanimous decision, the three Democrats and three Republicans on the ITC determined that subsidized steel from China has damaged U.S. steelmakers. The Chinese steel, the panel determined, had been dumped - sold at artificially low prices to undercut fair competition.
That decision upholds a preliminary action last month by the Commerce Department, which slapped penalties of 10.4 percent to 15.8 percent on Chinese-made steel tube exports valued at $2.7 billion in 2008. China blasted the November action as a "discriminatory measure."
Most of the steel involved in the dispute is used in oil drilling, and the ITC still must decide next year whether to leave the preliminary trade penalties in place or opt for higher or lower trade penalties.
Wednesday's action is similar to penalties the European Union's 27 member states imposed on Chinese steel pipe in July. The European action, however, was based on the threat of injury from Chinese products, while the ITC ruling determined that subsidized Chinese steel products already had injured U.S. companies.
"At a time when the nation is struggling with double-digit unemployment, full and strict enforcement of our laws against dumped and subsidized imports of steel and other manufactured products from China is essential to maintaining a viable U.S. manufacturing sector in the United States," the American Iron & Steel Institute, the lobby for U.S. steelmakers, said in a statement. ...
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