U.S. takes a shot: Duties weighed on pipeline pipe

TRADE

WASHINGTON• It’s the latest incoming trade salvo from the United States: the U.S. is considering punitive duties on pipeline material from a half- dozen countries including Canada.

The duties being sought for large- diameter welded pipe from Canada are more than 50 per cent. Canada supplies about US$66 million of pipe annually to the U.S. for use in oil and gas pipelines.

The allegation from U.S. private industry is that foreign competitors from Canada, China, India, Greece, South Korea and Turkey use unfairly dumped product.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is now weighing the case and could make final determinations on antidumping and countervailing duties in July and Septem- ber. That’s if the U. S. International Trade Commission finds in March that the case has enough merit to proceed.

The process is similar to one used against Canadian softwood lumber, newsprint and Bombardier planes. Massive duties against Bombardier were later knocked down by the International Trade Commission.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is celebrating the increase in trade actions this year: in a press release, Ross saluted the 81- per- cent increase in trade cases initiated this year.

Canada has responded with a shot of its own: It is targeting the entire U. S. system for imposing duties, in a case at the WTO that has infuriated the U.S. and could have global implications.