The World Trade Organization on Oct. 15 published the agenda for the next meeting of the Dispute Settlement Body, set to be held Oct. 26. Agenda items include reviewing the status of implementation of recommendations adopted by the body, with the U.S. providing a status report on the following: its antidumping measures on certain hot-rolled steel products from Japan; Section 110 (5) of the U.S. Copyright Act; its antidumping and countervailing duties on large residential washers from South Korea; and certain of its methodologies and their application to antidumping proceedings involving China. Also, the DSB will discuss the U.S.'s Continued Dumping and Subsidy Offset Act of 2000, along with a statement by the European Union related to it; and a U.S. statement on the implementation of the recommendations of the DSB regarding measures affecting trade in large civil aircraft. Also, the body will take up a request by Australia for the establishment of a panel on China's antidumping and countervailing duty measures on Australian wine.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade terminated an antidumping investigation into high-fructose corn syrup from China and South Korea after finding no correlation between the dumped products and harm to the domestic industry, the state-run Customs News said. Domestic HFCS producers had petitioned for the probe, which found that HFCS from China and South Korea is being dumped in Vietnam and that the domestic industry has been suffering significant losses, the report said. Factoring in the country's legal regulations on trade defense and the World Trade Organization's anti-dumping agreement, MIT decided to terminate the investigation, but to coordinate with stakeholders to monitor HFCS imports and devise measures to protect interests of domestic producers.

The European Union imposed a provisional antidumping duty on calcium silicon imports from China, following a complaint from Euroalliages, the European Commission said. The AD duty rates will apply to the following companies: Ningxia Ketong New Material Technology Co. Ltd., Hongguozi Industrial Zone, Huinong District, Shizuishan City, Ningxia Province -- 31.5%; Ningxia Shun Tai Smelting Co., Ltd., Zhongwei Industrial Park, Zhongwei City, Ningxia Province -- 43.3%; Shaanxi Shenghua Metallurgy-Chemical Co. Ltd, Yangxian EcoIndustrial Park, Hanzhong City, Shaanxi Province -- 32.8%; and all other companies -- 50.6%. The individual rates are conditional on the presentation to the EU member states' customs authorities of a valid commercial invoice, signed by the customs authority, that declares that the applicable company made the imports. If the invoice isn't presented, the all-others rate applies. These provisional duties will be in place for a period of six months.

China will impose temporary anti-subsidy deposits on U.S. imports of polyphenylene ether, beginning Oct. 15, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement, Reuters reported Oct. 14. The countervailing duty deposits will be 17.7% and apply to SABIC Innovative Plastics US LLC and other U.S. companies.

The European Union left in place antidumping duties on wire rod imports from China after an expiry review, the European Commission said. The AD duties apply to "bars and rods, hot-rolled, in irregularly wound coils, of iron, non-alloy steel or alloy steel other than of stainless steel" from China, covering various combined nomenclature codes. The Valin Group received an individual dumping rate of 7.9%, while the country-wide rate for all other companies was set at 24%.

The European Union implemented a definitive antidumping duty on aluminum flat-rolled products from China, the European Commission said. After receiving a petition from industry producers, the commission imposed the AD duty on "aluminum products, flat rolled, whether or not alloyed, whether or not further worked than flat rolled, not backed, without internal layers of other material." The scope of the duties was also modified to include aluminum products "in coils or in coiled strips, in cut-to-length sheets, or in the form of circles; of a thickness of 0,2 mm or more but not more than 6 mm; in plates, of a thickness of more than 6 mm; in coils or in coiled strips, of a thickness of not less than 0.03 mm but less than 0.22 mm."

The European Commission gave notice Oct. 1 of the impending expiry of the anti-subsidy and antidumping duties on certain coated fine paper from China, unless a review of the duties is initiated. European Union manufacturers can submit a written request for a review up to three months before the July 5, 2022, expiration date.

The European Commission in a Sept. 30 notice announced the impending expiration of antidumping duties on melamine from China, unless a review of the duties is initiated. European Union manufacturers can submit a written request for a review up to three months before the July 2, 2022, expiration date.

Finance Committee member Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, bemoaned the fact that the House did not vote on a short-term extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance already passed by the Senate, and told his committee's chairman and top Republican that he would like to be part of bipartisan negotiations to get TAA moving, paired with other trade priorities. Portman, in a letter Sept. 28, also said he worries that passing TAA as part of the Democratic-only soft infrastructure package means the broader trade agenda will be neglected. "As policymakers, I believe we can take steps to support American manufacturing and avoid the root causes for TAA," he said, and argued that renewing the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and Generalized System of Preferences benefits program, and strengthening antidumping and countervailing duty laws would help.

The World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body established a panel to address Japan's concerns over China's antidumping duties on stainless steel products, Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Sept. 28. Japan requested the panel in August. China's antidumping duties began in July 2019 on stainless steel goods from Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and the European Union. Japan said the duties violate the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the WTO Anti-dumping Agreement) “due to flaws in the Chinese authorities' determination and its investigation procedures.”