Following the decision of the United States International Trade Commission (US ITC) to impose antidumping (AD) duty and countervailing duty (CVD) on imports of cold rolled flat steel products from China and Japan, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) stated that the US has conducted a total of 161 trade remedy rulings on various steel products worldwide. According to the MOFCOM, 80 senators from the steel group of the US Congress wrote a joint letter to the US ITC, pledging to strengthen the enforcement of trade remedy law. China is worried about US trade protectionism in the steel industry and believes that the weak steel industry in the United States is the result of US overprotection. The MOFCOM also stated that the difficulties challenging the global steel industry result from weak demand because of the international financial crisis. This is a common consensus reached by many countries worldwide, the MOFCOM said, adding that fiercer trade protectionism can only aggravate frictions and conflicts, but will help little to resolve problems. Accordingly, China believes that the best solution is to strengthen cooperation, cope with the difficulties together, free up potential demand and to realize mutually beneficial results.
Meanwhile, the Japan Iron and Steel Association (JISF) stated that, during the antidumping investigation by the US ITC, the Japanese steel industry pointed out that exports of cold rolled steel products from Japan have caused no injury to the domestic industry in the United States. The JISF believes that it is unjust and extremely regrettable that the US ITC has rejected the statements from the Japanese side and concluded that the domestic industry in the US has been injured by imports of the mentioned products from Japan, and decided to enact antidumping measures. The JISF also stated that the Japanese steel industry will carefully study this decision.