Today, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) voted affirmatively in the final stage of its countervailing duty (CVD) investigation, finding that imports of stainless steel flanges from Chinahave materially injured the U.S. flanges industry. All five Commissioners voted in the affirmative.
The ITC vote is in response to an August 16, 2017 petition filed by the Coalition of American Flange Producers (CAFP). The case has demonstrated that imports of stainless steel flanges from China and India are being unfairly dumped in the United States as well as that Chinese and Indian producers of flanges receive improper government subsidies, such as tax breaks and discounted raw materials. As the ITC recognized today, these actions violate international trade rules and have caused material injury to the U.S. stainless steel flanges industry.
“The U.S. stainless steel flanges industry and its workers are thankful today for the Commission’s decision, as they have long suffered from subsidized imports from China and India,” said Daniel B. Pickard, counsel to the CAFP and a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley Rein LLP. “We hope that the Department of Commerce will calculate final antidumping margins that reflect the extreme, unfair pricing of Chinese flanges, and that the Commission will continue to thoroughly investigate the injury caused by the dumped and subsidized imports of Indian producers.”
On April 6, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) announced its affirmative final determination in its CVD investigation of imports of stainless steel flanges from China, finding a CVD rate of 174.73%. This means that within approximately seven days of today’s vote, the DOC will issue a CVD order on stainless steel flanges from China.
The DOC has already announced the preliminary determinations of its other antidumping duty (AD) and CVD investigations of stainless steel flanges, finding combined AD and CVD rates of 431.84% on imports of Chinese flanges and of 23.10% – 384.86% on imports of Indian flanges.
The CAFP is an association of U.S. producers of stainless steel flanges, comprised of Core Pipe Products, Inc., and Maass Flange Corporation. The CAFP and its individual members are committed to standing up for American workers and supporting U.S. manufacturers.
