Aluminium sector trade group Aluminum Association lauded the United States Department of Commerce for its final determination that importers from Russia and four other countries have been dumping certain aluminium foils on the American market.
On Friday the Commerce Department found that aluminium foil exporters from Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey have been flooding the US market with below-market products. Commerce assigned exporters of certain aluminium foils with final countervailing and antidumping duties ranging from 5.82 percent to 63.05 percent.
Tom Dobbins, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association, said in a press release that the move was a step in the right direction.
“Today’s decision is another sign that the United States is committed to combatting unfair trade through strong enforcement of international trade rules. These determinations bring domestic aluminum foil producers one step closer to securing relief from a second surge in unfairly-traded imports that hit the industry just as it was beginning to recover from an earlier wave of dumped foil from China.”
The Commerce Department found that imports from those five countries of unbacked aluminium foils of a thickness of 0.2 mm or less shipped in rolls of 25 lbs. or more were sold at below-market prices. In addition, it determined that exporters from Oman and Turkey were the beneficiaries of unfair government subsidies.
“The U.S. aluminum foil industry, which has invested more than $500 million in recent years to expand production and supply customers, includes the most competitive producers in the world,” Dobbins continued. “But U.S. manufacturers should not have to compete with products that are sold at unfairly low prices and subsidized by foreign governments in violation of the trade rules that we all must follow.”
It is up to the United States International Trade Commission’s (USITC) to determine whether such imports materially harmed domestic aluminium producers. The USITC said it would release a decision on the matter within a month.