Details of U.S. Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Cases Filed on Solar Cells and Modules from China

Yesterday, the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CVD) duty petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission alleging that Chinese manufacturers of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and panels are selling in the U.S. market at less than fair value and are receiving illegal subsidies from the Chinese government.

CASM is a coalition of seven solar companies that manufacture solar cells and panels in the United States. The coalition is led by SolarWorld, the largest U.S. solar manufacturer. The six other companies have chosen to be anonymous, which is unusual in U.S. AD/CVD cases.

The scope of merchandise alleged by CASM to be subject to these AD/CVD petitions is as follows:

Crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells, whether or not individually or partially or fully assembled into other products, including, but not limited to, modules, laminates, panels and building integrated materials.

The scope covers crystalline silicon PV cells of thickness equal to or greater than 20 micrometers, having a heterogeneous, homogeneous or patterned p/n junction, heterojunction, metal-insulator-semiconductor junction or charge-induced junction. The junction may be formed by any means, including but not limited to dopant diffusion, ion implantation, epitaxial growth, any other deposition or growth of semiconductors, insulators or metals, or bonding of dissimilar materials. The merchandise subject to these petitions may be either partially or fully processed.

Merchandise covered by this investigation is currently classified in the Harmonized Tariff System of the United States (HTSUS) under subheadings 8541.40.60.20, 8451.40.60.30, 8501.61.00.00 and 8507.20.80. 

The petitions do not include thin-film photovoltaic products produced from amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, copper indium gallium selenide, or dye-sensitized solar cells.

The AD petition alleges that Chinese solar cell and panel producers are dumping their products in the United States in amounts greater than 100% of their value.

The CVD petition claims that Chinese solar cell and panel producers benefit from a range of subsidies from the Chinese government, including cash grants; significantly discounted raw material inputs, such as polysilicon and aluminum; discounted or free land, power and water; preferential loans and directed credit; tax exemptions, incentives and rebates; export assistance credits; and export insurance at preferential rates. 

The statutory timeline for the AD and CVD cases indicates that preliminary antidumping duties could be imposed on these products by January 12, 2012, although such duties could be imposed 90 earlier since the petitioners have alleged “critical circumstances” and are seeking to have duties applied retroactively.

Read More

First U.S. Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Petitions of 2011 Filed Today

In the first U.S. antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases of 2011, U.S. companies today filed AD/CVD petitions on imports of steel wheels from China and refrigerators from South Korea and Mexico. These AD/CVD petitions are the first ones filed in the U.S. since AD/CVD petitions were filed against wood flooring from China in October 2011.

Bottom-Mount Combination Refrigerator-Freezers from South Korea and Mexico

In the first case filed today, Whirlpool Corporation filed AD and CVD petitions against bottom-mount refrigerators from South Korea and an AD petition against the same product from Mexico. According to Whirlpool two Korean manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, export their products to the U.S. from manufacturing facilities in both Korea and Mexico. The Whirlpool products impacted by these imports are made in Amana, Iowa, where Whirlpool employs approximately 2,000 people.

Steel Wheels from China

In the second case filed today, Accuride Corporation, based in Evansville, Indiana, and Hayes Lemmerz International Inc., based in Northville, Michigan,filed AD and CVD petitions on steel wheels from China. Steel wheels are used on passenger cars, light trucks, sport utility and commercial utility vehicles.

Based on the statutory schedule for these trade remedy cases, the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is expected to issue their preliminary injury determinations in mid-May 2011. Assuming an affirmative preliminary injury determination by the ITC, the Department of Commerce’s preliminary decision on the level of subsidies is expected in August 2011 and on dumping in October 2011. The final decisions will be issued by the Department of Commerce and ITC in the second quarter of 2012.

Read More

Commerce Department's Proposed Changes to AD/CVD Policy and Procedures Likely to be Criticized by U.S. Trading Partners

The U.S. Department of Commerce announced today a number of proposed changes to U.S. antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) policy and procedures intended to "strengthen trade enforcement and help keep U.S companies competitive." These measures, which are certain to be controversial and provoke criticism from China and other U.S. trading partners, will be reviewed by the Commerce Department during the next few months through a "transparent review" that will include an opportunity for public comments.

Most of the proposed changes are targeted at countries designated as non-market economies, which currently include China and Vietnam.

U.S. importers of products subject to AD/CVD investigations are likely to oppose the proposed change that would require importers to post cash deposits rather than bonds to secure entry of their products into the U.S. once a preliminary affirmative determination is made in an AD/CVD case.

A number of the proposed changes to current AD/CVD law and practice are also likely to generate a strong reaction by attorneys that handle AD and CVD cases on a regular basis. There will also be questions as to whether these changes are in compliance with the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement and the WTO Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.

Another controversial aspect of this proposal is that the press release announcing these proposed changes claimed that these changes were being made in support of the President's National Export Initiative, which aims to double U.S. exports during the next five years. If implemented, these measures are likely to increase the AD and CVD duties paid by importers and the cost of certain imported products subject to such duties. However, it is unlikely that these measures will have any positive impact on the ability of the U.S. manufacturing sector to export their products.

If the Commerce Department chooses to go forward with these changes, revisions to the AD/CVD regulations (19 CFR Part 351) will be required in most cases.

The following is a summary of the 14 proposed changes:

1. Expanded use of random sampling to select companies as individual respondents in AD investigations and reviews rather than choosing the largest exporters;
2. Strengthening Commerce’s current practice regarding the issuance of company-specific AD rates in NME cases;
3. Clarification of Commerce’s current NME practice that when the Department uses import prices for valuing a production factor, such prices should include all applicable freight and handling costs;
4. Clarification of Commerce’s current NME practice to require companies to report production inputs for all products produced at each of their facilities – not just those facilities that produced merchandise destined for the United States – for use in the Department’s NME dumping calculations;
5. Clarification of Commerce’s current CVD practice to reiterate that Commerce considers state-owned enterprises (SOEs) as constituting a “specific” group when they are alleged to be receiving countervailable subsidies from the government;
6. Reconsidering the treatment of export taxes and value-added taxes (VAT) in Commerce’s NME AD methodology; and
7. Strengthening the treatment of resellers and other non-reviewed parties in NME cases to ensure that such parties pay the full amount of AD duties.
8. Adoption of a new methodology for valuing wage (labor) rates in NME cases by using surrogate wage rates that fully capture all labor costs (including benefits and taxes paid to workers by their employers) in the NME country;
9. Eliminating the practice of allowing individual companies to seek removal from an antidumping (AD) or countervailing duty (CVD) order based on their ability to show zero dumping margins or subsidy rates for three (AD) or five (CVD) consecutive years;
10. Tightening the rules in non-market economy (NME) cases for determining when the price of production inputs purchased from market economy countries will be substituted for the Department’s standard valuation for such inputs;
11. Considering whether importers will be required to post cash deposits rather than bonds for imports that fall within the scope of an AD/CVD investigation starting with the issuance of Commerce’s preliminary determination (rather than following the imposition of an AD/CVD order);
12. Strengthening the certification process for the submission of factual information to the Department;
13. Strengthening the accountability of attorneys and non-attorneys practicing before Commerce; and
14. Tightening the deadlines for submitting new factual information in AD/CVD cases.

Read More

U.S. Department of Commerce Creates Pilot Program for Electronic Filing of Documents in Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Cases

The U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice and request for comment in the Federal Register earlier this week announcing that Import Administration, the agency that conducts antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and administrative reviews, is creating a three-month pilot program to test an electronic document filing and access system in certain antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings.

The system, known as Import Administration's Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Centralized Electronic Service System or IA ACCESS, will allow parties to electronically file documents in the antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings as well as allowing public access to public versions of such submissions. Currently, six paper copies of each submission must be filed with Import Administration and such documents are only available to the public by visiting the Central Records Unit at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC.

Import Administration has selected 14 cases (see the notice for a complete list) to serve as the test cases for the IA ACCESS e-filing system. Participants in those cases will be contacted concerning their participation in the pilot project prior to the program's commencement. Participants will also be requested to provide feedback and suggestions for the improvement of IA ACCESS after completion of the pilot program.

The implementation of an electronic filing will be extremely useful to interested parties in antidumping and countervailing duty cases as well as the members of the trade community that want to conduct research on previous cases. It will certainly reduce the volume of paper generated in such cases. However, given that antidumping and countervailing duty filings are extremely voluminous (sometimes involving hundreds of pages per filing), this program will only be successful if the system offers the ability to upload and view very large files.

Read More

New Report Confirms Increased Use of Trade Remedy Cases and Spike in Safeguard Cases

Professor Chad P. Bown, publisher of the Global Antidumping Database, recently issued a report confirming that the number of trade remedy cases is increasing. The report, entitled "Protectionism Continues its Climb", states that the second quarter of 2009 saw a 12.1% increase in initiated antidumping, safeguard and countervailing duty cases.

Among other things, the report notes that India continued the trend of being the most active country seeking to initiate new import restrictions, having initiated 34% of all of the new trade remedy cases during the second quarter of 2009. The U.S. was the second most active country in the second quarter of 2009, initiating 17% of the total number of new cases.

Not surprisingly, the report confirms that China is the primary target of the new trade remedy cases. China was named in 82.6% of newly initiated trade remedy investigations by WTO members and targeted in 17 out of the 17 new cases in which trade remedies were imposed.

The report also confirms a "spike" in the number of new safeguards cases and predicts that this trend "will almost certainly continue to increase throughout the remainder of 2009 and into 2010."

The Global Antidumping Database is a project of Chad P. Bown, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Business at Brandeis University and a Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution.

Read More

U.S. Industry Files Three AD/CVD Cases on Chinese Steel Products in Past Two Weeks

The number of antidumping and countervailing duty petitions being filed in the U.S. on steel products from China is on the rise.

On June 5, 2009, WP Industries, Inc., ITC Manufacturing, Inc., J&L Wire Cloth, Inc. and Nashville Wire Products Mfg. Co., Inc. filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission against imports of wire decking from China.

The proposed scope of the investigations on wire decking includes welded-wire rack decking for industrial and other commercial storage racks or pallet rack systems produced from carbon or alloy steel wire.

Wire decking is classified under Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheadings 9403.90.8040, 9403.20.0020, 7217. 10, 7217.20, 7326.20, 7326.90.

These antidumping and countervailing duty petitions follow similar petitions filed on May 27 and 28 against prestressed concrete steel wire strand and steel grating, respectively, from China.

More antidumping and countervailing duty cases against other types of imported steel products from countries in addition to China are expected to be filed in the coming months.

Read More

Global Antidumping Database Confirms Increased Number of Trade Remedy Cases

According to data compiled by the Global Antidumping Database, the first quarter of 2009 saw an 18.8% year increase in the number of antidumping, countervailing duty, global safeguard, and China-specific safeguards brought by WTO members compared to the same period in 2008. Not surprisingly, China's exporters were the dominant target of these investigations, accounting for more than 2/3 of the new cases.

The Global Antidumping Database is a project of Chad P. Bown, an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and International Business School at Brandeis University and a Fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution.

An analysis of the data prepared by Professor Bown shows that:

Compared to the same time period in 2008, the first quarter of 2009 also saw a 15.4% increase in the imposition of new import-restricting tariffs and quotas upon completion of earlier investigations initiated under these trade remedy laws, a trend that will almost certainly continue to increase throughout the remainder of 2009 and into 2010. While India imposed the most new import barriers under these laws during this time period, other G-20 members that did so include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, the EU and its member states, South Korea, Turkey and the United States. China's exporters are the dominant target for these newly imposed import restrictions facing new barriers in over 70% of the cases.

The complete and detailed data on antidumping investigations will be made available in early summer 2009 as version 5.0 of the Global Antidumping Database.

Read More

WSJ: The Vietnam Tariff? Plastic Bags Present a Test For Free Trade

Today's Wall Street Journal Asia contains an opinion piece on the recently filed U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty petitions file on polyethylene retail carry bags from Vietnam. The article discusses whether the U.S. Commerce Department will apply the U.S. countervailing law to Vietnam, which is treated as a non-market economy for antidumping purposes, and discusses the cost of such a decision to U.S. consumers.

Read More