The UK’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) has announced that it has proposed the revocation of the antidumping measures on imports of high fatigue performance (HFP) rebar from China to meet demand from the UK’s construction industry.
The TRA found that keeping the measures, which have been in place since 2016 when the UK was still a part of the EU, would not be in the economic interests of the UK due to high demand and lower supply from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine amid the ongoing war, resulting in price hikes. In addition, the authority also found that the revocation of the duties would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of the dumping, though it stated that the mentioned impact on the UK economy would outweigh the potential harm to the sole UK producer.
Meanwhile, the UK Steel trade association stated that the proposal puts hundreds of jobs at risk and will be damaging to the UK steel industry.