Commerce “Self-Initiates” Latest Anticircumvention Case on CORE Imports

Noting that “strict enforcement of U.S. trade law is a primary focus of the Trump administration,” the Commerce Department announced its 21st anticircumvention inquiry Wednesday, notable as the first self-initiated by the government without a complaint from the domestic industry.

Commerce will be looking into possible circumvention involving exports of certain corrosion-resistant steel products (CORE) made with substrate from China completed in Costa Rica, Guatemala, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and CORE completed in Malaysia from Taiwanese substrate, and then exported to the United States. If the evidence suggests the steel undergoes a “minor alteration” in those countries, Commerce may determine that the exports are subject to the antidumping and/or countervailing duty orders on CORE from China and Taiwan. In 2017 and 2019, the department found that CORE completed in Vietnam from Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean substrate only had “minor alterations” by cold-rolling and coating the steel. Commerce had previously found that cold-rolling and coating flat steel met this test.