Indian aluminum sheet, in addition to 17 other countries, hit with U.S. anti-dumping duty

U.S. slaps anti-dumping duty on Indian aluminum sheet, sheet from 17 other countries

Last Friday, the U.S. imposed fresh tariffs on U.S. $1.96 billion worth of aluminum sheet products from 18 countries, including India.
The U.S. imposed the duty after determining the goods were being dumped, according to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
“The Department’s aluminum sheet investigations constitute the broadest U.S. trade enforcement action in two decades,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “We look forward to receiving parties’ comments on the preliminary determinations that aluminum sheet imports from 18 countries have been dumped, and in some cases unfairly subsidized, into the U.S. market.”
Ross added tariffs were being immediately imposed even though the department’s reading was the dumping was preliminary.
“As a result of these decisions, Commerce will instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to collect cash deposits from importers of common alloy aluminum sheet from the above-named countries based on the preliminary rates noted above,” the Department of Commerce said in a release announcing the preliminary determination.
In addition to India, the other countries on the list are: Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Oman, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and Turkey.
The U.S. petitioners in the investigation are the Aluminum Association Common Alloy Aluminum Sheet Trade Enforcement Working Group and its individual members.

If the Department of Commerce issues a final affirmative determination, the U.S. International Trade Commission will then make a final determination around April 5, 2021. China, meanwhile, did not make the list. However, that’s because the U.S. had already imposed tariffs on the country’s aluminum products.
What had necessitated the tariffs was an increase in the consumption of certain products amid COVID-19 in the U.S., like recreational vehicles, which increased the importance of aluminum sheet pricing.

Little impact on India

But according to some sector experts in India, the country will not be majorly affected by the new U.S. duty. The reason? Simply, India exports low volumes of aluminum sheet to the U.S.
Jawaharlal Nehru University professor and trade expert Biswajit Dhar told The Telegraph newspaper that India sold such sheets in limited quantity to the U.S. In that vein, the duty’s impact would be negligible.
The tariff rate against Germany ranges from 51.18-352.71%. Furthermore, duties on imports from Brazil will range from 49.48-136.78%.
However, anti-dumping duties on common alloy aluminum sheet imports from India will range from 0-47.92%.
Meanwhile, India and the U.S. have a scheduled ministerial dialogue Oct. 26. With that said, it remains to be seen whether this new duty will come up in these talks.
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