PH firms deny dumping steel pipes in US
THE TWO Philippine exporters identified in the antidumping petition lodged by American steel pipe manufacturers denied having exported such products to the United States, according to the Department of Trade and Industry.
“We checked with them and they denied having exported steel pipes to the US. This is probably a case of circumvention… maybe exporters from other countries that are required to pay antidumping duties in the US evaded payments by misdeclaring the origin and exporter (company name) of their steel pipe shipments,” Luis M. Catibayan, director at the DTI’s Bureau of Import Services (BIS), said in an interview with the Inquirer Friday.
According to Catibayan, the DTI will submit to US authorities the information they obtained from the Philippine exporters identified in the petition. The DTI and the exporters will then have to wait for the US government to come out with the results of the investigation before taking further action.
Last week, the US announced that it was investigating the Philippines and four other countries for allegedly “dumping” circular welded carbon quality steel pipes, after four American manufacturers claimed these imports were causing material injury to their industry.
In a notice, the US Department of Commerce said it had initiated the antidumping duty investigations of imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam and a countervailing duty (CVD) investigation of imports of the same merchandise from Pakistan.
The petitioners for these investigations were identified as Bull Moose Tube Co. (Chesterfield, MO); EXLTUBE (N. Kansas City, MO); Wheatland Tube (Chicago, IL); and Western Tube and Conduit (Long Beach, CA).
The agency said dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than its fair value. For the purpose of the CVD investigations, countervailable subsidies referred to financial assistance from foreign governments that benefit the production of goods from foreign companies and are limited to specific enterprises or industries.
