US reduces anti-dumping duty on POSCO wire rod from 41.1% to 0.9%, boosting exports to the US

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The U.S. Department of Commerce recently reduced the anti-dumping duty rate on POSCO products for Korean carbon and alloy steel wire rods from the previous 41.1% to 0.94% in the first administrative review.

According to the Korea International Trade Association and the steel industry on the 21st, the U.S. Department of Commerce made this final determination recently.

The Department of Commerce accepted a petition from the U.S. steel industry in March 2017, claiming damage caused by foreign wire rods, and conducted an anti-dumping investigation on wire rods exported by 10 countries including Korea. In March 2018, in the original investigation, it imposed a high tariff rate of 41.1% on POSCO.

The Department of Commerce recalculates the tariff rate annually through administrative reviews. In this first review, it determined that Korean wire rods were sold at prices lower than normal value and decided to impose anti-dumping duties, but the dumping margin rate was applied much lower than in the original investigation. The Department of Commerce also made a final determination of a countervailing duty (CVD) rate of 0.49% on POSCO products in the second administrative review of Korean carbon alloy heavy plates. Accordingly, no actual duties are imposed. If the countervailing duty is below 0.5% in the review, it is excluded from the countervailing duty imposition.

Previously, POSCO was subject to an anti-dumping duty rate of 7.1% and a countervailing duty rate of 4.31% in the original investigation from March to May 2017. In the first administrative review from December 2019 to January 2020, the anti-dumping duty rate was raised to 19.87%, while the countervailing duty rate was lowered to 0.5%. The anti-dumping duty rate for the second administrative review has not yet been announced.

Currently, Korean steel products are subject to a quota system (quantity restriction) when exported to the U.S. The government accepted a quota limiting steel exports to 70% of the average volume of the previous three years through negotiations with the U.S. in 2018, in exchange for exemption from tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.