United States Steel Corporation (US Steel), along with other petitioning parties in ongoing antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations relating to seamless carbon and alloy standard, line and pressure pipe from China, announced Thursday that it is making an allegation of "critical circumstances" in the proceeding.
US Steel says that in response to a surge of imports entering the market after the filing of these cases in September 2009, the petitioners are seeking to have remedial duties assessed on certain imports that entered the US after the filing of the petitions, but prior to the time in which duties are normally assessed.
The petitioners allege that Chinese imports of seamless standard line and pressure pipe increased by more than 290 percent in the three months after the filing of the AD and CVD petitions, as compared to the three months prior to the filing.
If the petitioners are successful in achieving a finding of critical circumstances, remedial duties could be assessed on imports entering the market within 90 days prior to the publication of the preliminary CVD determination in this proceeding. The DOC is currently scheduled to make this preliminary determination on February 16, 2010.
The DOC will also make its preliminary determination regarding critical circumstances at the same time. In addition to an affirmative finding of critical circumstances by the DOC, the US International Trade Commission (ITC) must also make affirmative determinations of critical circumstances in order for dumping and/or countervailing duties to be assessed retroactively on imports.