The United States announced the 4th extension of the time to issue the final conclusion of the anti-circumvention investigation case for stainless steel plates in Vietnam

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) initiated an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tax evasion investigation on stainless steel plates (belt and strip) of Vietnam in May 2020. Recently, on May 5^th, 2022, the US Department of Commerce announced the extension of the time to issue final conclusions for both investigation contents to September 6, 2022. This is the fourth time the US has announced an extension of the investigation period.

Specifically, the Department of Commerce DOC investigated two issues:

(1) Scope inquiry to determine whether stainless steel sheet products are manufactured in China, then further processed in Vietnam before exporting to the US is subject to tax or not;

(2) investigating the anti-circumvention behavior of Vietnamese businesses.

The anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duty evasion investigation on stainless steel plate (belt and strip) was carried out by the DOC’s own investigation, not based on the submission of any other third parties, including U.S. domestic industries.

The 4th extension of the time to issue the final conclusion of the anti-circumvention investigation case for stainless steel plates in Vietnam

Since February 2017, DOC has imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on stainless steel products (HS code of class 7219 and 7220) originating in China with anti-dumping duty rate from 63.86 to 76.64% and anti-subsidy duties from 75.60% to 190.71%. Meanwhile, the US import duty rate applied to Vietnam’s stainless steel plate is 0%.

On May 5, 2022, the DOC issued a notice extending the 4th time to issue final conclusions for both investigations to September 6, 2022.

In order to protect the legitimate interests of exporters, in this case, stakeholders need to actively update and closely monitor the developments of the case, and at the same time need to contact and cooperate with goodwill and provide sufficient information to investigative agencies as well as the Trade Remedies Department to receive timely assistance in the case handling process.

The DOC’s renewal notice can be downloaded here.

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