Antitrust Lawyer Blog Commentary on Current Developments

Articles Tagged with China

On February 4, 2019, the American Institute of Steel Construction, LLC filed antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing (“CVD”) petitions with the U.S. Department of Commerce (“DOC”) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (“ITC”).

Under U.S. law, a domestic industry can petition the government to initiate an AD investigation into the pricing of an imported product to determine whether it is sold in the United States at less than fair value (i.e., “dumped”).  A domestic industry can also petition the initiation of a CVD investigation of alleged subsidization of foreign producers by their government.  Additional duties can be imposed if DOC determines that imported goods are dumped and/or subsidized, and if the ITC also determines that the domestic industry is materially injured or threatened with such injury by reason of subject imports.

If the ITC and DOC make preliminary affirmative determinations, U.S. importers will be required to post cash deposits in the amount of the AD and/or CVD duty rates for all entries on or after the date DOC’s preliminary determination is published in the Federal Register.  The preliminary AD/CVD rates can change in the final DOC determination, especially if foreign producers and their governments participate fully in the investigations.

On July 6, 2018, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced procedures for requesting product exclusions from the  25% tariff imposed on certain Chinese goods under Section 301.

The announcement of exclusion procedures coincided with the imposition of the first phase of tariffs on July 6, 2018 covering 818 tariff subheadings listed in USTR’s Federal Register notice on June 20. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2018-06-20/pdf/2018-13248.pdf. The tariffs were imposed following USTR’s investigation of the Chinese government related to technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation. The goods identified relate to  industrial sectors that are part of China’s Made in China 2025 initiative.

Interested persons have until October 9, 2018 to request a product exclusion. Requests will be open for response within 14 days after the request is posted in USTR’s docket number USTR-2018-0025 at www.regulations.gov. Replies to responses will be due 7 days after the close of the 14-day response period.

On June 17, 2014, the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”) blocked the proposed P3 Network shipping alliance between Denmark’s AP Maller-Maersk (“Maersk”), Switzerland’s Mediterranean Shipping Company (“MSC”), and France’s CMA CGM (“CMA CGM”).

This is MOFCOM’s second block since it started conducting merger reviews approximately six years ago.  This is the first time that MOFCOM blocked a transaction between foreign firms.

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