WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Commerce announced an affirmative preliminary determination in the antidumping duty (AD) investigation of imports of carbon and alloy steel threaded rod from Thailand, finding that exporters from Thailand have dumped steel threaded rod in the United States at a margin of 20.83 percent.
As a result of today’s decision, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of carbon and alloy steel threaded rod from Thailand based on the preliminary rate noted above. Because Commerce also preliminarily determined that critical circumstances exist, we will instruct CBP to begin suspending entries 90 days before the publication of the preliminary determination in the Federal Register.
In 2018, imports of carbon and alloy steel threaded rod from Thailand were valued at an estimated $5.8 million.
The petitioner is Vulcan Threaded Products Inc. (Pelham, AL).
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 179 new antidumping and countervailing duty investigations – this is a 231 percent increase from the comparable period in the previous administration.
Antidumping 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 489 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 October 15, 2019.
If Commerce’s final determination is affirmative, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) will be scheduled to make its final injury determination on or about November 28, 2019. If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination of dumping, and the ITC makes an affirmative final injury determination, Commerce will issue an AD order. If Commerce makes a negative final determination of dumping, or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no order will be issued.
