As promised, this past Sunday Sept 1st the U.S. began implementing 15 percent tariffs on a variety of goods. On Monday, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that China filed a complaint against the US under the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement system

Escalating trade tensions between the United States and China have resulted in multiple actions that threaten to significantly alter trade flows between the world’s two largest national economies

The proposed tax plan has the potential to influence U.S. trade remedy investigations, which depend on the prices at which imported products are sold in the U.S. market and home market prices.  This blog examines how the BAT might affect one aspect of U.S. antidumping investigations: the calculation of dumping margins by the Department of Commerce

There is a tendency to view China’s 1.9 percent devaluation of the Yuan on August 11 through the lens of the U.S. dollar. After all, the Yuan has been fixed or closely linked to the greenback for decades, and Washington has been among the most vocal critics of China’s currency policy. However, currency and trade data suggest that China’s devaluation has more to do with the other currencies.

In December 2014, Commerce released its new list of surrogate countries for China. Neither Indonesia nor the Philippines are on the new list, meaning that Commerce and parties in China NME cases will face increasing difficulties in finding usable surrogate countries on the official list, outside of Thailand. Perhaps reflecting these new difficulties, Commerce has begun to allow more countries not on the list to serve as surrogate countries.

2014 was another eventful year at the ITC for antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases with some 8 petitions filed, 14 investigations completed, and 23 sunset votes on 40 orders. The 8 AD/CVD petitions filed in 2014 were down from the 14 filed last year, but still above the 5 cases filed in 2012.

The International Monetary Fund continues to revise its global growth projections downward but it is having trouble keeping up with a steady stream of bad news. In October, the Fund released its latest edition of the World Economic Outlook, a biannual survey of the global economy. In this installment, the authors describe a persistently “uneven global recovery.”

2013 was a big year for new AD/CVD cases.

A section 701 (countervailing duty) & 731 (antidumping duty) petition was filed on the last day of 2013 (12/31/2013) on Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Products from People’s Republic of China (AD & CVD) and Taiwan (AD) by Wiley Rein LLP on behalf of SolarWorld Industries America Inc.

The U.S. International Trade Commission voted unanimously on Dec. 12 that the U.S. industry producing silica bricks was not injured by imports from China. Therefore, there will be no anti-dumping duties imposed.

The government of China has decided to assist domestic shipbuilders by subsidizing the purchase of new ships to the tune of 1,500 yuan per gross ton (approximately $241*) until the end of 2015

On 23 September 2013, the World Bank released its latest per capita Gross National Income (GNI) rankings for calendar year 2012. Countries that are “close” to China in per capita GNI (i.e., in reasonable proximity to the band fixed by the current surrogate countries) include the Philippines, Costa Rica, and Mexico.

In November of 2012 the U.S. International Trade Commission found that the U.S. solar industry was materially injured by imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules from China. The duties have had a discernible effect on both imports from China and from the rest of the world.