Leibowitz on Trade: The Latest on Circumvention, Retaliation

Trade attorney and Steel Market Update contributor Lewis Leibowitz offers an update on the latest developments in Washington:

• Circumvention—On Thursday, the Commerce Department issued its long-awaited final determination in an anticircumvention inquiry under the antidumping and countervailing duty laws of the United States. The issue was whether cold-rolled and corrosion-resistant (CORE) flat rolled steel from Vietnam was “circumventing” the AD/CVD orders on Chinese product. After these orders were entered in 2015, imports of similar products into the U.S. surged. Domestic steel producers alleged that Chinese substrate was being sent to Vietnam and processed into cold rolled or CORE steel, which was then sent to the U.S. The final determination means that imports from Vietnam will be subject to AD/CVD measures applicable to China. The U.S. has stretched the circumvention concept in this case. It could be extended to many other products, not just steel.