WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) said on Wednesday that domestic steel producers were damaged by imports of prefabricated structural steel from China, Canada and Mexico, and will continue to conduct trade surveys on such products to determine whether tariff measures are being taken.
The preliminary ruling by the U.S. International Trade Commission ensures that the U.S. Commerce Department's anti-dumping and countervailing investigations launched last month continue.
Following the agreement between the United States, Canada and Mexico last year to amend the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. lawmakers, car manufacturers and the governments of Canada and Mexico have been strongly urging the Trump Administration to lift tariffs on imported steel products and aluminium products on national security grounds.
The prefabricated structural steel is mainly used in large-scale construction projects, bridges, office and residential buildings, parking lots and ports.
If the U.S. Department of Commerce determines that these imports are dumped into the U.S. market at a lower price than fair value, or are subject to unfair subsidies, or both, and that the U.S. International Trade Commission also finds that they have caused substantial damage to the U.S. market, the United States will impose a double-countervailing tariff on the product with an initial validity of five years.
The U.S. Department of Commerce said the trade investigation was initiated in response to a complaint from an industrial trade organization.
In 2017, US imports of prefabricated structural steel from Canada, China and Mexico were valued at US$658.3 million, US$841.7 million and US$406.6 million, respectively.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Canadian government has provided a total of 44 subsidy schemes for prefabricated structural steel products imported to the United States, including taxes, subsidies, loans, export insurance and equity allocation. The Chinese government provided 26 subsidy schemes, while the Mexican government provided 19 subsidy schemes.
Last month, a Canadian steel industry organization said it would strongly oppose anti-dumping duties imposed by the United States on some steel products imported from Canada. According to the Canadian Institute of Steel Construction, the claims made by these American business groups that "there is an unfair trade in products from Canada that will cause losses to U.S. producers of prefabricated structural steel" are groundless.
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