The US Department of Commerce (Commerce) has initiated an investigation India, Turkey, Brazil and Bahrain for countervailing subsidies on common alloy aluminum sheet imports.
Commerce has so far only determined that there is sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation that was first demanded by the Aluminum Association earlier this year. The association led the petition for imports that entered the US from Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2019, and provided strong evidence that the products entering the country threatened material injury, causation, and negligibility.
The Aluminum Association initially petitioned to have antidumping and countervailing duties brought upon 18 countries for common alloy aluminum sheets that entered the US between 2017 and 2019.
Four countries are under investigation by Commerce but the root of the problem can be traced back to February 2019, when ADs and CVDs were ordered against China for exporting around 657.6mn lb (297,829mt) of common alloy sheets to the US.
China subsequently began flooding global markets with the product, which, in turn, impelled those countries to do the same. While the US resolved the subsidized imports from China, it inherited the same problem on a larger scale involving more players.
Interested parties have until April 20 to submit comments before Commerce determines the duties to be paid by these countries.