US steelmakers filed a complaint against South Korea and other countries

The US steel industry has filed a complaint against South Korea for dumping and subsidizing cold rolled steel makers. The Korean government and local metal industry representatives, in turn, said the accusation was unfounded and ridiculous.

According to the Department of Commerce, Industry and Energy and the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), five US steel producers, including US Steel and AK Steel, filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission and the United State Department of Commerce against eight countries, including the South Korea, China, India and Brazil, requesting anti-dumping and countervailing duties on cold rolled steel supplies.

A complaint from the steel industry said that "US steelmakers have been hit by a Korean dumping exporter. Therefore, anti-dumping duties should be levied in the range of 93.32 - 176.13 percent." When countervailing duties were discussed, 41 of the government aid programs were cited as illegal subsidies. Government support for the supply of electricity at a reasonable price, short-term financial support for exports, and export finance insurance were included. At the same time, target companies for investigation have not yet been selected.

The local US industry is closely monitoring against the background of the complaint, but apparently without studying the problem, that the excess of exports in the country, in general, cannot but affect export prices. In addition, government aid programs, called the US steel industry, were carried out in accordance with various WTO provisions. Therefore, South Korea argues that the US claims are unfounded.

Jae Hyun Joong, a researcher for CHINA, noted that “the problem is not with government funds, but the global steel market itself is suffering from oversupply, while American companies are experiencing financial difficulties, just like everyone else. behaving irrationally, trying to cover their losses. "