The next step in the antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigations of wire rod imports from 10 countries, is the submission of posthearing briefs by the petitioners (rod mills), respondents (foreign mills) and purchasers (AWPA and the tire industry). These briefs address the primary arguments and responses to questions posed by the Commissioners during the injury hearing held at the International Trade Commission (ITC) on November 16th.
AWPA’s posthearing brief is now posted on the AWPA website. The primary arguments in this brief include:
- Scrap prices, not imports, drive US pricing of wire rod
- Frequent and numerous US wire rod price increases have been imposed by the US rod industry in 2016 and 2017 (This is a key indicator of a US industry which is NOT injured.)
- The US rod industry competes heavily (1/3 of wire rod consumption) with its customers.
- Imports were not the cause of the closures of Republic and Georgetown.
The decision to be made by the ITC is whether or not the US rod industry is injured by reason of imports. If the ITC finds the rod industry is not injured, and/or not materially injured by reason of imports there will be no duties imposed on imports of rod from these 10 countries.
The first vote by the ITC will be on December 20 in the cases involving Belarus, Russia and the United Arab Republic. The decision on the other four countries will likely be made in January. The ITC is comprised of only 4 (out 6 possible) Commissioners. This means that 3 of the 4 Commissioners must vote ‘in the negative’ in order for no duties to be imposed. There will be an individual vote for each country.
Other posthearing briefs from the tire industry, petitioners and respondents, will be posted as they are received.