WASHINGTON—The U.S. Commerce Department said Friday it has set a combined import duty of around 700 percent on a major Chinese steel pipe producer to offset unfair pricing practices, and lesser but still substantial duties on other Chinese manufacturers and exporters.
"Chinese subsidies and undervalued exports dumped in the United States by Chinese standard pipe producers put American producers at a disadvantage in the global marketplace and distort global trade flows," David Spooner, Commerce assistant secretary for import administration, said in a statement.
The department said it leveled a 615.92 percent countervailing duty on standard steel pipe exported by the Shuangjie Group to offset Chinese government subsidies.
It also imposed an additional anti-dumping duty of 85.55 percent on Shuangjie Group exports to offset prices that Commerce said were below normal value.
The pipe's applications include plumbing and heating systems, air-conditioning units and automatic sprinkler systems. It is used to carry water, natural gas, steam and other gases and liquids.
The United Steelworkers union and a half-dozen pipe manufacturers in Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, Pennsylvania, California and New Jersey filed a case last year asking for relief against low-priced Chinese imports.
Gilbert Kaplan, an attorney representing domestic producers, said the 615-percent duty imposed on Shuangjie was the highest countervailing duty the Commerce Department has ever imposed against foreign government subsidies.
"Right now, the Chinese steel industry is larger than the United States, the European and the Japanese steel industries combined and it got to that size through these kind of subsidies," Kaplan said.
He attributed the high duty rates on Shuangjie to the company's lack of cooperation with the U.S. investigation, which allow the the Commerce Department make its decision based on "adverse facts available."
"I think the U.S. government is really putting down a strong marker against this kind of subsidization," Kaplan said.
The Commerce Department said other Chinese steel pipe manufacturers and exporters would face lower, but still substantial duties.
It set an 85.55 percent anti-dumping duty on Jiangsu Yulong Steel Pipe Co. and a 69.20 percent anti-dumping duty on 31 other Chinese companies.
In the countervailing duty investigation, it set a 29.57 percent duty on imports from the Weifang East Steel Pipe Co and 44.86 from the the Kingland Group.
Chinese standard pipe manufacturers and exporters not specifically named in the case will be hit with an anti-dumping duty of 85.55 percent and a countervailing duty of 37.22 percent, the Commerce Department said.
The U.S. International Trade Commission must make a final determination by July 14 that Chinese steel pipe imports are injuring, or at least threatening to injure, domestic producers for the duties to remain in place.
If the ITC votes in favor of the duties, they will be retroactive to late 2007, Kaplan said.
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