US faults Chinese company’s aluminium exports

14 November 2016

The US Commerce Department, in a preliminary finding, said certain aluminium exports by China Zhongwang Holdings to the US circumvented antidumping restrictions imposed on the company in 2010.

The investigation was initiated last year in response to allegations by a US trade group that China Zhongwang and companies affiliated with its founder, Liu Zhongtian, were shipping aluminium in the form of shipping pallets into the US to evade punitive tariffs. The Commerce Department in 2010 punished China Zhongwang and other Chinese producers with tariffs as high as 374.15 per cent after finding they were receiving illegal subsidies and dumping, or selling products in the US below market prices.

The preliminary determination, detailed in a Nov. 3 memorandum from Christian Marsh, the Commerce Department’s deputy assistant secretary for antidumping and countervailing duty operations, found that a type of aluminium that didn’t fall under the scope of the 2010 ruling should be subject to restrictive tariffs.

The aluminium is so similar to restricted metal that it can be passed off as virtually the same kind, the memo said.

The findings apply to all Chinese aluminium exporters and US importers.

“We are gratified by Commerce’s preliminary determination to take steps to shut down what has been a significant avenue of circumvention for Zhongwang and other Chinese producers,” Alan Price, counsel to the US trade group and chair of international trade practice at Wiley Rein LLP, a Washington, D.C., law firm.

Source – The Australian