Amid ongoing global trade jitters, a U.S. trade panel said the country suffered from imports of large diameter welded pipe, enabling the Commerce Department to continue investigation into related anti-dumping and counterveiling duties.
Kim Hyesung has the full story.
The U.S. International Trade Commission(ITC) has voted to continue anti-dumping and subsidy investigations into imports of large-diameter welded pipe from Korea and five other countries.
The commission said Monday local time that a U.S. industry is materially injured or threatened by large-diameter welded pipe imports from Korea, Canada, China, Greece, India, and Turkey ....that are allegedly sold in the U.S. at below-market prices or are being unfairly subsidized by their respective governments.
Imports of the welded pipes, which can be used to transport oil and gas, totaled over 440 million u.s. dollars from the six countries in 2016, according to the U.S. Commerce Department.
It estimated that Korea shipped over 150 million dollars in 2016, with dumping margins of around 16 and 20 percent.
The ITC looked over the case after several U.S. steel producers filed a petition that they suffered from large-diameter welded pipe imports.
Monday's decision means the U.S. Commerce Department can continue with its anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations.

"The ITC vote doesn't automatically lead to action like setting quotas or tariffs, but it backs President Trump's push for steel import tariff measures and gives additional pressure to Korean companies. What Korea can do now is to hold bilateral consultation with the U.S. and continue its outreach efforts so investigation doesn't end up in real trade regulation measures."

The U.S. Department of Commerce is scheduled to make its preliminary subsidy decision by around April 16th and its antidumping duty determination by around June 29th.
Kim Hyesung, Arirang News.