12 May 2020 | 21:53 UTC — Pittsburgh

US launches circumvention inquiry on Vietnamese stainless steel sheet, strip

Highlights

Probe involves flat-rolled stainless steel products from China that are completed in Vietnam

Commerce imposed final duties on Chinese stainless steel in March 2017

Pittsburgh — The US Department of Commerce on Tuesday self-initiated a circumvention inquiry to determine if imports of stainless steel sheet and strip from Vietnam are circumventing existing US antidumping and countervailing duties on these products from China.

The possible circumvention involves stainless steel flat-rolled products from China that are completed in Vietnam and then exported to the US, Commerce said.

If Commerce preliminarily determines that circumvention is occurring, it will instruct US Customs and Border Protection to suspend liquidation and begin collecting cash deposits on imports of stainless sheet and strip completed in Vietnam using Chinese-origin stainless steel flat-rolled inputs and/or Chinese-origin stainless sheet and strip further processed in Vietnam, it said.

"For products found to be circumventing the AD and CVD orders, or subject to their scope, duties will be imposed on future imports and on any unliquidated entries from the date of initiation of the circumvention inquiry," Commerce said.

Commerce is also self-initiating a concurrent scope inquiry to determine if stainless sheet and strip from Vietnam is within the scope of the AD/CVD orders on stainless sheet and strip from China, it said.

Shipments of stainless sheet and strip from Vietnam to the US increased in value by $122 million, or 180.4%, comparing import data from the 40-month periods before and after the initiations of the original AD/CVD investigations on Chinese stainless sheet and strip on March 3, 2016, Commerce said.

Commerce set final AD duties ranging from 63.86%-76.64% and subsidy rates of 75.6%-190.71% on Chinese stainless steel sheet and strip in March 2017.