Sources close to the US Department of Commerce (DOC) indicated that a suspension agreement might be in the works for Chinese standard and structural pipes. If this agreement were to be concluded, the current antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigation would be stopped.
Under a suspension agreement, China would receive a quota and set minimum or "reference" prices from the DOC covering the pipe under investigation. These prices would be adjusted every quarter, taking the US Producers Price Index into consideration. As China is a non-market economy (NME), the agreement would be negotiated with the Chinese government, who would be in charge of administering these pipe exports through strict adherence to export licenses.
In 1997, China had agreed to a suspension agreement covering cut-to-length carbon steel plates. When China withdrew from this agreement in 2003, the DOC issued an antidumping order against Chinese cut-to-length carbon plates.