Investigation Starts on the 23rd, Ends Before July 23 Next Year
China is initiating a sunset review of its anti-dumping duties on stainless steel products imported from South Korea, the European Union (EU), and Indonesia. With the expiration of the anti-dumping measures approaching in one year, China will assess whether to continue imposing tariffs.
On the 22nd, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced on its website that it will begin a final investigation from the 23rd to determine whether to maintain the anti-dumping measures on imported stainless steel billets, hot-rolled plates, and hot-rolled coil products from South Korea, the EU, and Indonesia. The investigation will conclude before July 23 of next year.
Previously, in July 2019, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce decided to impose anti-dumping duties on stainless steel billets, hot-rolled plates, and hot-rolled coil products exported by steel companies from South Korea, Japan, and the EU, citing dumping that caused damage to its domestic industry. At that time, the tariff rates ranged from a minimum of 18.1% to a maximum of 103.1%, depending on the company.
In response, Japan filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming the measures were unfair. In June last year, the WTO Dispute Settlement Body ruled in favor of Japan, stating that China failed to prove the damage caused to its domestic industry by imported stainless steel products. This was interpreted as China imposing anti-dumping duties without reasonable grounds. Consequently, China decided to conduct a re-investigation related to the WTO ruling in November of the same year but announced in May that it would not change the existing measures.
This sunset review is a procedure to determine whether to continue imposing tariffs one year before the expiration of the five-year anti-dumping measures. If China acknowledges damage to its domestic industry, the anti-dumping duties will be extended. However, China has decided to exclude Japanese companies, which had caused friction through WTO complaints, from this sunset review and will no longer impose anti-dumping duties on them.
In the case of the South Korean company POSCO, it was exempted from tariffs at the time of the 2019 anti-dumping duty imposition by negotiating with the Chinese side to adjust the export product prices and quantities. Currently, POSCO is exporting products to China normally.
Meanwhile, trade tensions between the two sides have recently intensified following the EU’s provisional 'tariff bomb' on Chinese electric vehicles. After the EU decided to apply provisional countervailing duty rates ranging from 17.4% to 37.6% in addition to the existing 10% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, China initiated an anti-dumping investigation last month on European pork and pork by-products and also signaled the possibility of investigating dairy products. Additionally, China is accelerating the anti-dumping investigation on EU brandy, which began in January this year.
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