The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has welcomed the announcement by the European Commission that it will be investigating the possible circumvention of antidumping duties imposed on certain corrosion resistant steels from China.
"The commission has opened the case because Chinese exporters have been making minor modifications to their products simply to avoid payable antidumping duties. This is cheating - avoiding EU antidumping tariffs which are explicitly owed. It allows Chinese exporters to continue to undercut, and cause injury to, EU steelmakers. Such practices also short-change the EU budget," said Axel Eggert, director general of EUROFER.
"EUROFER calls on the commission to undertake the metallic coated steel investigation as a matter of priority and to extend the scope of the existing duties to stamp out this form of circumvention," added Mr. Eggert.
The news of the opening of this investigation came just a week after the EU launched a WTO challenge against Indonesian stainless steel raw material restrictions and accompanying capacity-related subsidies.
Mr. Eggert concluded by stating, "EUROFER appreciates that the commission has taken this anti-circumvention action on its own initiative. Moreover, we welcome that it has committed to combatting fraudulent practices, reflecting its determination to enforce EU trade rules and decisions as firmly as possible."
EUROFER recalled that another circumvention scheme as been uncovered recently. "Quarto plate from China was being mislabelled as being 'slabs'. Once again this had enabled exporters to avoid the applicable duties - worth millions of euros, which customs authorities have now been directed to recover," reads the EUROFER statement.