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Mexico, Argentina, Brazil and Canada recently made antidumping and countervailing duty decisions on certain products from mainland China, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported April 9. The duty decisions impact a range of imported Chinese goods, including blenders, machinery parts, solar modules, iron and steel products, sunglasses and more.
A Japanese trade official said Japan's subsidies to diversify and reshore supply chains have already spurred plans for domestic factories for semiconductors, battery components for electric vehicles, aircraft engine parts, household disinfectants, medicines, protective gowns and chemicals.
The European Commission imposed antidumping duties on aluminum extrusions from China with duty margins ranging from 21.2% to 32.1%, the commission announced in a March 30 news release. The antidumping investigation began Feb. 14, 2020, following a complaint filed by the association European Aluminium, which represented more than 25% of the European Union's total aluminum extrusion production capacity.
China's Ministry of Commerce is imposing import duties on Australian wines following an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation, it said in a March 26 news release, according to an unofficial translation. Beginning March 28, the antidumping duty on Australian wines in containers of two liters or less will be 116.2%-218.4% for each company subject to the investigation. The agency determined the dumping margin for the wines to be 116.2%-218.4% and the subsidy margin provided by the Australian government to be 6.3%-6.4%. The new antidumping duty rate is significantly higher than the preliminary countervailing duty rate China set in December (see 2012100016). The agency decided not to impose countervailing duties for the subsidies “in order to avoid double taxation,” the release said.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai opened her first full week on the job with a series of video calls with major allies and trading partners -- Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union -- and diplomatic summaries of the calls from both sides mostly echoed each other, suggesting there was a good deal of agreement.
Australia plans to ask the World Trade Organization to establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on what it says are illegal Chinese antidumping and countervailing duties on Australian barley (see 2005180016). Australia held WTO consultations with China in late January but those talks “did not resolve our concerns,” Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan said March 15. Tehan said the duties have unfairly affected barley exporters and are “not consistent with China's WTO obligations.”
The European Union and U.S. have moved closer to each other's positions on World Trade Organization reform, panelists on a webinar agreed, but that's not to say it's going to be quick or easy to get the appellate body restarted.
Brazil and Mexico recently made antidumping duty decisions on products from China, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council reported Feb. 26. Brazil determined that China has been dumping certain aluminum plates, sheet and strip, HKTDC said, but has yet to decide whether to apply antidumping duties on those goods. Brazil also renewed an antidumping duty order for five years on certain “float glass” from China with a 2 mm to 19 mm thickness, and updated its schedule to complete an ongoing antidumping sunset review of certain Chinese “pre‑sensitised offset aluminium printing plate.” Brazil is expected to make its final determination April 5. In addition, Mexico began a sunset review of its antidumping duty order on Chinese “pre‑stressed iron and steel products,” HKTDC said. The duty has been in place since 2016 and imposes a fee of US$1.02/kg.
Thompson Hine trade attorney Dan Ujczo expects the only activity on trade in the first eight months of Joe Biden's presidency will be on issues either so small that they don't make a splash -- such as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill and the Generalized System of Preferences benefits program -- or on issues that have an immediate need for action.