The U.S. makes preliminary anti-circumvention ruling on Chinese-origin stainless steel plate and strips imported from Vietnam
According to the notification of the United States International Trade Administration (USITA) on September 15, 2022, the US Department of Commerce (USDOC) preliminarily ruled that some stainless steel plates and strips originating in China were further processed in Vietnam and exported to the United States in order to avoid the Anti-dumping duties (AD) and countervailing duties (CVD) for these products in China. These affirmative in-scope products and circumvention findings apply to stainless steel sheet and strip subject to these decisions and produced or exported by any Vietnamese company.
As a result, the US Department of Commerce will instruct US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to suspend liquidation and require cash deposits for prepaid taxes on unliquidated entries of stainless steel sheets and strips produced in Vietnam that are sourced from China, i.e. these evasion and Scope Investigation of stainless steel sheet and strip products entering or withdrawing from warehouses for consumption on or after the date of publication in the Federal Register (May 15, 2020).
If Vietnamese companies under these investigations report that their stainless steel sheet and strip products exported to the United States are produced by a specific Chinese supplier that has its own anti-dumping/countervailing duties, a cash deposit for the duties is payable. Otherwise, the US Department of Commerce will direct CBP to require a cash deposit at the current China AD (58.04%) and CVD (75.6%) rates. The liquidation suspension instruction will remain in effect until further notice.
Non-Chinese-origin stainless steel sheets and strips processed or completed in Vietnam are exempt from these investigations. Therefore, a cash deposit is also not required.
If the stainless steel sheet and strip imported from Vietnam are not produced using any stainless steel sheet and strip from China, importers and exporters must meet certification and documentation requirements in order to not be bound by the cash deposit requirement. Vietnamese exporters producing stainless steel sheets and strips claiming that their stainless steel plate and strips are not produced using any stainless steel sheet and strip materials originating in China must prepare and maintain exporter certification and documents supporting exporter certification.
In addition, importers of this type of stainless steel sheet and strip must prepare and maintain an importer’s certificate and documents supporting the importer’s certification. They must also keep a copy of their exporter’s exporter’s certificate and relevant supporting documents. Production of stainless steel plates and strips of Chinese origin.