September 29, 2023

On January 18, 2023, Cleveland Cliffs Inc. and the United Steelworkers Union filed antidumping (AD) and countervailing responsibility (CVD) petitions in opposition to U.S. imports of sure tin- and chromium-coated metal sheet mill merchandise (“tin mill merchandise”) from Canada, China, Germany, Netherlands, South Korea, Taiwan, and the UK. Tin mill merchandise are used primarily to make cans for meals, aerosol, paint, filtration and line purposes, and caps and closures for glass containers.

Tin mill merchandise are already topic to Part 232 tariffs of 25 p.c that have been imposed on imports of metal and aluminum merchandise from all nations.  Sure nations, together with Canada, the European Union member states and the UK have been granted exemptions from these Part 232 tariffs.

Tin mill merchandise from China are usually not solely topic to the Part 232 metal tariffs, but in addition are topic to an extra 7.5 p.c tariff from the Part 301 tariffs on Chinese language imports.

Regardless of these current tariffs, the U.S. business seeks further AD/CVD duties to additional shield them from import competitors. Demand for tin mill merchandise has steadily shrunk as firms have developed substitute packaging merchandise to exchange tin cans or developed can designs that cut back the quantity of metal used.

The U.S. Division of Commerce (“DOC”) and U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee (“ITC”) will conduct investigations to additional study the allegations made within the petition. DOC will examine whether or not the named topic imports are being offered to america at lower than honest worth (“dumping”) or profit from unfair authorities subsidies.  ITC will examine whether or not the topic imports are inflicting “materials damage” or “menace of fabric damage” to the home business.

1. Scope

The petition proposes the scope of the merchandise to be coated by these AD/CVD investigations as:

“tin mill flat-rolled merchandise which can be coated or plated with tin, chromium, or chromium oxides. Flat-rolled metal merchandise coated with tin are referred to as tinplate. Flat-rolled metal merchandise coated with chromium or chromium oxides are referred to as tin-free metal or electrolytic chromium-coated metal. The scope contains all of the famous tin mill merchandise no matter thickness, width, type (in coils or lower sheets), coating kind (electrolytic or in any other case), edge (trimmed, untrimmed or additional processed, akin to scroll lower), coating thickness, floor end, mood, coating metallic (tin, chromium, chromium oxide), discount (single- or double- decreased), and whether or not or not coated with a plastic materials.”

See the proposed scope definition for a whole description of the bodily traits of the coated and excluded merchandise, and the HTS numbers that could be used to import the topic merchandise.

2. Alleged AD/CVD Margins.

Petitioner supplied estimated dumping margin for the topic nations:

Canada – 78.29%

China – 130.88%

Germany – 43.64%

Netherlands – 124.17% – 294.27%

South Korea – 13.46% – 110.84%

Taiwan – 47.22% – 60.12%

Turkey – 96.51% – 106.43%

United Kingdo – 110.81%

Though Petitioner alleged quite a few authorities subsidy applications that benefitted the Chinese language tin mill industries, Petitioner didn’t allege any particular subsidy charges.

3. Named Exporters/ Producers

Petitioner included an inventory of firms that it believes are producers and exporters of the topic merchandise.  See connected record of exporters right here .

4. Named U.S. Importers

Petitioner included an inventory of firms that it believes are U.S. importers of the topic merchandise.  See connected record of US importers right here.

5. Estimated Schedule of Investigations.

January 18, 2023 – Petitions filed

February 7, 2023 – DOC initiates investigation

February 8, 2022 – ITC Employees Convention

March 3, 2023 – ITC preliminary dedication

 

June 17, 2023 – DOC China CVD preliminary dedication (assuming prolonged deadline) (4/13/23 – unextended)