The US Department of Commerce has made a preliminary determination of countervailable duties (CVD) for aluminum sheets imported from Bahrain, India, Brazil, and Turkey.
In an order published through the International Trade Administration on August 10, US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, announced that Commerce had found that exporters from the four countries had received subsidies for imports of the material in 2019.
According to the order, preliminary CVD margins were calculated at 9.49pc for Bahrain and at 0.76-1.32pc for Brazil. Indian imports were subject to a preliminary margin of 4.55-34.84pc while aluminum sheets imported from Turkey were levied with a preliminary CVD of 0.07-3.15pc.
Ross added that Commerce will instruct the Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from US importers of aluminum sheets from these four countries based on these preliminary rates.
Commerce estimates aluminum imports from India and Turkey amounted to $123mn from each country, while those from Bahrain and Brazil were at around $240.4mn and $978mn, respectively.
The Aluminum Association, one of the main petitioners to ask the department to open the antidumping (AD) and CVD investigations, said that the duties would go a long way in leveling the playing field for aluminum sheet producers in the US.
Tom Dobbins, president and chief executive officer of the Aluminum Association, said that US sheet producers were among the most competitive in the world and that they were being impacted because of competition from “products that are unfairly subsidized by foreign governments.”
Commerce has informed that it will issue its preliminary AD determinations on the four countries, along with 16 others named by the Aluminum Association, in its petition, by October 27, 2020.