The European Commission has announced that it has decided to impose a provisional antidumping duty on imports of certain cold rolled (CR) flat steel products originating in China and Russia.
The commission found dumping margins of 19.8 percent to 26.2 percent for cold rolled flat steel imports from Russia and margins of 52.7 percent to 59.1 percent for imports of the same products from China. While the provisional duties for Russia reflect the full dumping margin for that country, the duties for China are set at a level of only between 13.8 percent and 16 percent.
The investigation was initiated on April 1, 2015, upon a complaint lodged by the European Steel Association (EUROFER) on behalf of producers representing more than 25 percent of total EU production of certain cold rolled flat steel products.
“The extremely low level of import duties for China may not stop the flood of Chinese cold rolled flat steel imports. This is a result of the lesser-duty rule applied by the EU. There is almost no other country in the world that gives such a favor to unfair imports. The US would most likely apply a duty at the full range of 59 percent in a similar case. The EU must therefore urgently remove the lesser-duty rule to effectively address the Chinese steel trade distortion as the root cause of the EU steel crises,” commented EUROFER director general Axel Eggert.
The products in question currently fall under Customs Tariff Statistics Position Numbers 7209 15 00, 7209 16 90, 7209 17 90, 7209 18 91, 7209 18 99, 7209 25 00, 7209 26 90, 7209 27 90, 7209 28 90, 7211 23 30, 7211 23 80, 7211 29 00, 7225 50 80 and 7226 92 00.