The Positive Effects of Antidumping Cases
The Municipal Castings Fair Trade Council (which represents fifteen domestic producers of iron construction castings) found relief from unfair imports by filing antidumping and countervailing duty petitions. Before filing petitions, imports from Brazil, Canada, and China grew nearly six fold between 1982 and 1985. Low-priced iron construction castings imports took away a substantial volume of sales from U.S. producers and caused profitability declines.
On May 13, 1985, antidumping and countervailing petitions were filed on behalf of The Municipal Castings Fair Trade Council with the U.S. Department of Commerce (“Commerce”) and U.S. International Trade Commission (“Commission”) alleging that the iron construction castings industry was materially injured and threatened with material injury due to less-than-fair-value imports of iron construction castings.
The Commission made a final determination that the castings industry in the United States was materially injured by reason of imports from Brazil, Canada, and China on February 19, 1986 for heavy castings and on April 20, 1986 for light castings.
The Commerce Department issued the antidumping duty orders on imports of heavy castings in March 1986 and on imports of light castings in May of 1986. The duty margins ranged from 6.0 percent to 58.7 percent for imports from Brazil, Canada, and China.
Imports from Brazil, Canada, and China plummeted due to the imposition of orders, as displayed in the chart above, and resulted in substantial improvement in the performance of the U.S. iron construction castings industry.
In 1995, the United States amended its anti-dumping duty statute to include the conduct of five-year, or so-called “sunset,” reviews of anti-dumping duty orders. On May 3, 2010, the Commerce Department and Commission initiated the third sunset review of iron construction castings imports from Brazil, Canada, and China. The Commission voted in the affirmative on October 15, 2010 that revocation of the antidumping duties would likely lead to the continuation or recurrence of material injury in the reasonable foreseeable future.
The antidumping duty orders on iron construction castings from Brazil, Canada, and China continue to provide relief to the U.S. industry twenty-five years after being imposed.
