The U.S. Department of Commerce announced the affirmative preliminary determination in the antidumping duty (AD) investigation of imports of cast iron soil pipe from China, finding that exporters have been dumping cast iron soil pipe in the United States at margins of 302.61 percent.

As a result of today’s decision, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from importers of cast iron soil pipe from China based on these preliminary rates.
In 2017, imports of cast iron soil pipe from China were valued at $11.5 million.
The petitioner is the Cast Iron Soil Pipe Institute (Mundelein, IL).
The strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump Administration. Since the beginning of the current Administration, Commerce has initiated 120 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – this is 186 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration.
Antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws provide American businesses and workers with an internationally accepted mechanism to seek relief from the harmful effects of the unfair pricing of imports into the United States. Commerce currently maintains 456 antidumping and countervailing duty orders which provide relief to American companies and industries impacted by unfair trade.
Commerce is scheduled to announce the final determination on or about January 8, 2019.
If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will be scheduled to make its final injury determination on or about February 21, 2019.  If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination in this investigation and the ITC makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an AD order.  If Commerce makes a negative final determination or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.