US preliminary ruling to impose punitive tariff on Chinese steel wire decking

The US Commerce Department announced a preliminary assessment Tuesday on Chinese-imported steel wire decking, saying that the country will impose punitive tariffs ranging from 2.02 percent to 437.43 percent.

According to the preliminary determination, some Chinese steel wire decking manufacturers will be imposed a punitive tariff ranging from 2.02 percent to 3.13 percent, while others who did not respond quickly to coordinate with the investigations that the US launched will be imposed a punitive tariff as high as 437.43 percent.

The department claimed that as Chinese manufacturers obtained subsidies from the Chinese government, the amount of steel wire decking that China exported to the US reached $317 million in 2008, up 49 percent compared with 2006.

The department will give its final ruling in March of next year.

At the request of American steel wire decking manufacturers, the US Commerce Department decided to launch an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation on China-imported steel wire decking in June this year. The department will give the preliminary assessment on whether anti-dumping existed in steel wire decking exports from China to the US.

According to the procedure of the US anti-subsidy investigation, the ruling from the Commerce Department will decide if subsidies existed and how much of a subsidy the products gained, while the International Trade Commission (ITC) will decide whether these subsidies caused damage to the US steel industry. If both organizations give an affirmative ruling, the US can impose anti-subsidy measures on the Chinese-made products.

Impacted by the slide of the domestic economy and rising protectionism, the US government has imposed more trade punitive measures this year.
 

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