Illustrative image. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) –The US Department of Commerce slapped heavy import duties on some steelproducts from Vietnam after it decided they originated in China, violating theUS’s anti-dumping and anti-subsidy orders.
The department on December5 announced preliminary affirmative rulings that corrosion-resistant steel(CORE) and some cold-rolled steel products imported from Vietnam were producedfrom substrate originating in China. This circumvented existing anti-dumpingand countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders on CORE and cold-rolled steel fromChina, it said in a statement.
In 2016, the US imposedthe AD rate of 199.43 percent and CVD rate of 39.05 percent on imports of COREfrom China while AD and CVD rates of imports of China’s cold-rolled steel were setat 265.79 percent and 256.44 percent, respectively.
As a result of therulings, the US Customs and Border Protection will begin collecting cashdeposits on imports of CORE and cold-rolled steel produced in Vietnam at thesame rates applied on those from China. Importers and exporters of Vietnamesesteel products produced from substrate originating in Vietnam or athird-country can seek an exemption from cash deposits by certifying thesubstrate originated outside of China, the US Department of Commerce said.
Vietnam argued thataccording to the World Trade Organisation (WTO)’s rules of origin, the countryto be determined as the origin of a goods is either the country where the goodshas been wholly obtained or the country where the last substantialtransformation was carried out.
According to Vietnam, internationalpractices and the US’s rules showed that there is a substantial transformationafter hot-rolled steel is processed to make CORE and cold-rolled steel. Therefore,CORE and cold-rolled steel produced in Vietnam using hot-rolled steel from athird country has Vietnamese origin.
The US is scheduled toannounce its final determinations for these inquiries on February 16, 2018. TheVietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade is working with Vietnam SteelAssociation and other agencies to protect the interests of local steelproducers and exporters in compliance with WTO agreements.-VNA
VNA
