US launches intensive investigations against Chinese products in 2008

According to information released by the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports of the Ministry of Commerce, in 2008 the US continued its previous momentum of launching frequent trade remedy investigations against Chinese products.

The US launched five cases involving a combination of anti-dumping and countervailing investigations against Chinese products, for example stainless steel pressure pipes. This is only slightly lower than the seven cases in 2007. The value involved in the investigations engaged in 2008 was 510 million USD.

The US launched five anti-dumping investigations against Chinese products, such as uncovered innerspring units, involving a total of 280 million USD. In addition, the US launched one anti-circumvention investigation, a case involving Chinese cut-to-length carbon steel plates.

In 2008, the US also made final determinations on the seven combined anti-dumping and countervailing investigation cases and six anti-dumping cases previously launched against China. In specific terms, for the seven combined anti-dumping and countervailing investigation cases, including a case involving standard steel pipes, the average countervailing duty rates ranged from 5.62% to 226.85% and the average anti-dumping tax rates ranged from 9.48% to 249.12%.

With the exception of one case, which involved off-road tires, the combined countervailing duty and anti-dumping taxes in the cases were relatively high. Among the final determinations of the six anti-dumping cases, cases involving steel nails and one or two enterprises in polyethylene terephthalate film resulted to relatively low tax rates involved. The other cases were closed with tax rates higher than 50 percent.

According to the Chinese customs, China-US trade increased by 11.6% year-on-year over the first eleven months of the year. The speed is 3.9 percentage points lower than the same period last year.

Source: People's Daily Online