Today, the US Department of Commerce announced its decision regarding the "changed circumstances" review in connection with the antidumping order against Ukrainian carbon
wire rod.
The Department has decided that
Ukraine is operating as a market economy and that this status will apply to all future administrative reviews that fall after the effective date of February 1, 2006. The Ukrainian government had requested this review and will no doubt be very pleased with the outcome.
How will it affect the current ad suit against Ukrainian
wire rod? The next review period would be October 1, 2005 - September 30, 2006. For any shipment after February 1, 2006 the Department would apply the market economy status. Numbers and economic circumstances are more accessible and the Department cannot base their determination on assumptions and comparisons to other market economies.
It will definitely be easier for the Ukrainian rod mills to prove no dumping. It will be of interest if Mittal Steel will decide to ship rods to the US from their newly acquired mill Kryvorizhstal.