The U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday approved trade investigations into grain- oriented electrical steel products from seven foreign countries, paving the way for the Commerce Department to set preliminary punitive duties in the near future.
All six commissioners of the trade panel voted in the affirmative that there was a reasonable indication that the U.S. industry was materially injured by imports of these products from countries of Czech, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Poland and China, the ITC said in a statement.
As a result, the U.S. Commerce Department will continue the investigations, launched on Oct. 25, on imports of these electrical steel products.
The investigations are in response to a request from two steel producers in the United States -- Ohio-based AK Steel Corporation and Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Ludlum -- and the United Steelworkers, an industrial labor union of steelworkers based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
They alleged that those products from the above seven countries were sold below the fair value of the products in the U.S. market at dumping margins ranging from 38.54 percent to 257.61 percent.
The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to make its preliminary countervailing duty determination in December 2013 and its preliminary anti-dumping duty determination in March 2014, according to the ITC.
China has repeatedly urged the United States to abide by its commitment against trade protectionism and work together with China and other members of the international community to maintain a free, open and just international trade environment.
