TRADE CASES HEADLINESTrade Cases
Commerce to Issue Duties on Welded Line Pipe from China
Dec. 23, 2008 The U.S. Department of Commerce will issue a countervailing duty order on imports of circular welded carbon quality steel line pipe from China.
The action follows the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC’s) finding of real or threatened material injury to a U.S. industry due to imports of these products from China that the U.S. Department of Commerce has determined are subsidized.
The investigation had covered circular welded carbon quality steel line pipe used for oil and gas pipelines, with an outside diameter of 16 inches or less. Petitioners for the case included Maverick Tube Corp., Houston, Texas; Tex-Tube Co., Houston, Texas; U.S. Steel Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.; and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, AFL-CIO-CLC, Pittsburgh, Pa. Additional participants in the case included Wheatland Tube Co., Sharon, Pa.; Northwest Pipe Co., Vancouver, Wash.; Stupp Corp., Baton Rouge, La.; and TMK Ipsco Tubulars, Lisle, Ill.
All six Commissioners voted in the affirmative regarding the finding of material injury. Commissioners Charlotte R. Lane, Irving A. Williamson, and Dean A. Pinkert based their affirmative determinations on findings of present material injury. Chairman Shara L. Aranoff, Vice Chairman Daniel R. Pearson, and Commissioner Deanna Tanner Okun based their affirmative determinations on findings of threat of material injury.