On August 3, 2023, the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) issued its final determination in the case of the investigation into the circumvention of trade remedy measures on carbon steel welded pipes and non-alloy circular welded steel pipes imported from Vietnam, allegedly evaded from Taiwan.
On August 4, 2022, the U.S. Department of Commerce formally announced the initiation of an investigation into the circumvention of trade remedy measures on certain steel pipe products imported from Vietnam.
On April 12, 2023, the DOC issued a preliminary determination in the investigation against the circumvention of trade remedy measures on imported steel pipes from Vietnam and certain other countries. Alongside this conclusion, the DOC also allowed Vietnamese exporters to participate in a self-certification mechanism confirming the non-use of hot-rolled steel (HRS) originating from China, Taiwan, South Korea, and India in order to be exempt from the application of anti-circumvention trade remedy measures.
On May 15, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a notice extending the deadline for the issuance of the final determination in the investigation against the circumvention of trade remedy on steel pipe products imported from Vietnam due to the need for additional time for investigation, review, and consideration of relevant information.
The deadline for the issuance of the final determination in the investigation against the circumvention of trade remedy on steel pipe products imported from Vietnam was set for August 4, 2023.
The United States concludes that certain steel pipe products from Vietnam do not circumvent trade remedy measures
According to the final determination issued by the DOC on August 3, 2023, certain imported products from Vietnam do not evade the anti-dumping and countervailing duties that the United States is applying to similar items from Taiwan due to the fact that these products do not use hot-rolled steel (HRS) sourced from Taiwan.
However, it is important to note that the conclusion that certain products do not evade trade remedy is only a partial conclusion. It is evident that the investigating agency did not conduct a thorough investigation based on the available information for all steel pipe products imported from Vietnam on time.
Because the DOC had previously extended the deadline for the issuance of the final determination once, it was not possible to further extend it, as the DOC's legal provisions for trade measures only allow for a single extension of up to 65 days from the initial deadline for the issuance of the final determination, with a maximum total time limit of 365 days from the date of the DOC's initiation notice.
As a result, the DOC issued the final determination for a portion of the investigated products. For the remaining steel pipe products from Vietnam also under investigation for trade circumvention, the DOC announced an extension of the deadline for the issuance of the final determination until November 2, 2023.
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