The Aluminum Association applauded the Senate Committee on Thursday for allocating $1.3mn to support a new Aluminum Import Monitoring (AIM) system in its 2021 appropriations bill, which has been a long-term concern for the AA.
The AIM program will allow government officials and the industry to enhance identifying trends in trade flows and address misclassification, transshipment and duty evasions. An example of China’s overcapacity was also pointed by Tom Dobbins, president of the AA.
USITC rules against foil imports from five countries
The US International Trade Commission (USITC) agreed on a preliminary determination that unfairly traded imports of certain aluminum foil from Armenia, Brazil, Oman, Russia, and Turkey harm domestic producers in the US.
Consequently, following the USITC’s affirmative preliminary determination, the US Department of Commerce will continue its investigations on these five countries, with decisions about Turkey and Oman by December 23, 2020. Commerce will determine its preliminary antidumping margins on all five countries by March 8, 2021.
Notably, imports of certain aluminum foil from the parties involved rose by almost 110pc, from 2017 to 2019, and constituted 43.7pc total imports to the US in 2019.