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Steel pipe producers face anti-dumping suits
Ten Vietnamese steel pipe manufacturers may face anti-dumping and anti-subsidy lawsuits on their products exported to the US from 4 American manufacturers, said the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).
According to the Saigon Times newspaper, VCCI said Ailled Tube and Conduit, JMC Steel Group, Wheatland Tube and United States Steel Corporation had asked the American Department for Commerce to conduct anti-dumping inspections on steel pipes imported from Vietnam, India, Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
The American Department for Commerce will have the final decision on whether to conduct the inspections or not by November 15 and the Vietnamese manufacturers will have to complete their investigation questionnaire by November 12.
The charge came after a testimony made last May at the US Senate Committee on Finance meeting by Robert L. Mahoney, president of Northwest Pipe Company, who brought up the fraudulent practice in which Chinese pipes were threaded and coupled in Vietnam and then mislabeled as Vietnamese products before being exported to the US. “This continues despite current customs rulings stating that simply threading coupling pipe does not change the country of origin of the product,” Mahoney said in a statement.
He thus urged the US Customs and Border Protection to enforce the nation’s trade laws to curb this duty evasion.
The US has to spend around US$3 billion a year for importing steel, with China, the world’s leading steel pipe manufacturer, holding 95 percent of the market share.
Steel pipes imported from China to the US was imposed an anti-dumping tariff of between 17.7 percent and 39.2 percent for five years starting October 2009.
According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, Vietnam’s steel export turnover in the year to September topped $1.26 billion.
Vietnamese steel pipe exports to the US in the first eight months of this year rose by 62.60 percent year on year to $34.03 million, the US manufacturers said in their lawsuit files.
tuoitrenews, Reuters
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