US steel firms say Chinese evaded tax via Vietnam

Hanoi, October 5 (VNA) – Two US steelmakers have requested the US Department of Commerce (DOC) check whether China is circumventing antidumping and countervailing duties on cold-rolled steel coils and corrosion-resistant sheets by processing hot-rolled coil in Vietnam. The Vietnam Competition Authority (VCA) last week announced that California Steel Industries (CSI) and Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) filed petitions complaining of unfairly traded imports of corrosion-resistant carbon steel and cold-rolled carbon steel from China. In June 2015, the USDOC imposed an anti-dumping tax of 199.43 percent and a subsidy rate of 241.43 percent. The decision was made after the US conducted an investigation on imported steel from China, among other countries and territories. The US producers contend that immediately after the DOC imposed duties on these imports, Chinese producers began to divert merchandise through Viet n am for completion prior to export to the US to evade duties. Exports of the products from China to the US sharply decreased while those from Vietnam surged. The companies asked the DOC to investigate and halt payments for the cold-rolled steel coils and corrosion-resistant sheets imported from Vietnam. They also proposed requiring deposits for the shipments equal to the anti-dumping tax and subsidy rate applied to Chinese products. The VCA said based on US law, the DOC would consider decide to investigate or not within 45 days from the receipt of the petitions. Any investigation must be completed within 300 days. Statistics from Vietnam’s General Department of Customs showed that in the first eight months of the year, steel imports reached 12.36 million tonnes, a 25 percent year-on-year increase. Imports from China hit 7.3 million tonnes, increasing 22 percent from the same period last year./.