Article by: Rick Walker, Vice President – TradeInsights, LCB,CCS

International Trade Commission (USITC) Makes Affirmative Preliminary Determination in Trade Cases on Aluminum Extrusions from China

In a recent press release dated November 17th from Wiley Rein LLP, the law firm representing the petitioners, they stated “The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) today found there is a reasonable indication that the American aluminum extrusions industry is materially injured or threatened with injury due to imports from China, Colombia, Doiminican Republic, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.

The Commission’s affirmative vote comes in response to petitions filed October 4, 2023, by the U.S. Aluminum Extruders Coalition, a coalition of 14 leading aluminum extruders in the United States, and the United Steelworkers (USW) union. The cases allege that unfairly dumped and subsidized imports of aluminum extrusions are injuring the domestic industry. “U.S. aluminum extruders and their workers, including thousands of USW workers, are suffering as a result of unfairly traded imports from these countries,” said Robert E. DeFrancesco, counsel to the petitioners and a partner in the International Trade Practice at Wiley. “Today’s vote by the Commission takes the domestic industry one step closer to restoring a level playing field to the U.S. aluminum extrusions market.”

On October 25, 2023, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced the initiation of antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations into imports of aluminum extrusions from the subject countries. The dumping margins for imports are alleged to be as high as 376.85%. The Commission’s affirmative preliminary injury determination paves the way for the Commerce Department to move forward with its investigations. Commerce is expected to issue its preliminary CVD determination in December 2023 and its preliminary AD determination in March 2024.

If Commerce also reaches affirmative preliminary determinations in these cases, suspension of liquidation of import entries will begin, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection will start to collect provisional AD and CVD duties from importers at that time, based on the preliminary margins calculated. If both the USITC and Commerce ultimately reach affirmative final determinations, AD and CVD orders on aluminum extrusions will be issued, imposing duties on the unfairly traded imports for a minimum of five years. Evasion, absorption, and circumvention of such duties are strictly illegal.

We will continue to monitor the progress of this issue, and post updates as needed.

Please contact your V. Alexander account team, or you may also contact our Trade Compliance team at tradeinsights@valexander.com with any questions.