2 PH firms cleared in antidumping case

The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has dropped its investigation on Philippine firms allegedly “dumping” carbon steel pipes to the detriment of the American steel manufacturing industry.

“The Commission found that imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from the Philippines are negligible … and [the Commission’s] investigation with regard to imports from this country is thereby terminated,” an order issued by the Commission on Monday stated.

The ITC, however, will continue pursuing its antidumping investigation against exporters from four other countries.

“On the basis of the record developed in the subject investigations, the Commission determines, pursuant to the Tariff Act of 1930, that there is a reasonable indication that an industry in the United States is materially injured by reason of imports of circular welded carbon-quality steel pipe from Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam … that are allegedly sold in the United States at less than fair value (LFV) and that are allegedly subsidized by the government of Pakistan,” the order stated.

The US earlier 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. Antidumping duty investigations were initiated on imports of steel pipe from Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam while a separate countervailing duty (CVD) investigation was undertaken on imports of the same merchandise from Pakistan.

The petitioners for these investigations were identified as Bull Moose Tube Co. of Montana; EXLTUBE of Kansas City; Wheatland Tube of Chicago and Western Tube and Conduit of Long Beach, California.

The agency explained that dumping occurs when a foreign company sells a product in the United States at less than its fair value. For the purpose of the countervailing duty 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.

Meanwhile, the two Philippine exporters identified in the petition earlier denied having exported such products to the US, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

“We checked with the exporters identified in the petition and they denied having exported steel pipes to the US. This is probably a case of circumvention, in which exporters from other countries that have to pay antidumping duties in the US have 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 earlier interview.