[Ferro-Alloys.com] A dozen U.S. senators. including Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, on Monday urged the Commerce Department to protect steelmakers from Chinese trade practices.

 

The Commerce Department imposed tariffs on Chinese dumping in 2008 and 2009 and is now deciding whether they can avoid tariffs and penalties in the production of some steel pipes used for the oil industry.

 

The issue is if the steel pipes can be sent to a third country to undergo in or finishing like heat treating and avoid tariffs.

 

The letter led by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said the anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders have provided much-needed relief to our industry and workers, who were subjected to massive injury from the influx of dumped and subsidized steel pipes from China in 2008 and 2009.

 

The senators said the Commerce Department is expected to decide in a few weeks whether to extend the tariffs to steel pipes sent to other countries from China, noting a preliminary ruling that covered piping sent to Indonesia. In May, the department preliminarily determined that such minor finishing is not enough to change the country of origin of Chinese (steel pipe). We applaud that ruling and greatly appreciate the hard work and extensive fact-finding and analysis that went into it, the letter said.

 

The Commerce Department needs to do everything in its power to protect the American steel industry and the domestic workers and businesses it supports, Brown said. That means not allowing countries like China to use loopholes to circumvent international law and evade anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

 

Portman said unfortunately, our businesses and thousands of American workers are at risk if important trade protections are watered down, allowing cheap Chinese products to flood our domestic markets. American-manufactured goods must be allowed to compete with their global competitors on a level playing field.

 

The letter was signed Levin, Stabenow and other senators including Sens. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Al Franken, D-Minn., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., Richard Shelby, R-Ala., Bob Casey, Jr., D-Penn., Dan Coats, R-Ind., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

 

In August, the United States International Trade Commission voted 6-0, finding that the steel industry has been injured by the import of oil industry steel pipe from India, Korea, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam illegedly sold in the United States at less than fair value and allegedly subsidized by the governments of India and Turkey, the ITC found.

 

The U.S. Department of Commerce preliminary anti-dumping duty determination are due Dec. 9.