1/10/2011
HEADLINES
Report: Russia To Place Antidumping Duty on Fastener Imports
Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade has offered to introduce antidumping duties of US$ 282.4 per ton on fastener imports to Russia, SteelGuru reports.
The duty would reportedly be applied for three years to all screws, bolts, washers and nuts manufactured outside the country. Fasteners produced in Belarus and “developing countries which use (the) special preference system of Russia” would be exempt.
Russian officials first publicly considered duties on fastener imports in May 2009. The investigation was initiated in response to representations from two Russian enterprises: MMK-Metiz and Severstal-Metiz, but no further action was taken at the time.
The idea was revived in July 2010 when the Russian Federation Ministry of Industry & Trade initiated an antidumping investigation on imported steel bolts and nuts from all countries.
The move comes weeks after the World Trade Organization ruled that European Union duties on fasteners from China break international trade rules in many cases and should be revised.
The WTO criticized the way the European Union assessed antidumping duties on fastener imports from China, affirming China’s complaint that the EU unfairly judged China as a non-market economy when it applied duties on fasteners in January 2009.
The WTO panel found that the EU discriminates against Chinese exporters compared to exporters from other countries. The decision could force the EU to set individual duties on companies instead of imposing a blanket duty for the whole country.
But the WTO panel reportedly rejected China’s claim that the EU “m
ade unfair comparisons between high-end EU fasteners used in the car and aviation industries with low-grade Chinese screws and bolts sold in hardware shops.”
The EU adopted 85% antidumping duties on certain fasteners from China in February 2009 after concluding that Chinese producers had flooded the market with fasteners at 30% to 50% below European prices.
China responded by placing five-year antidumping duties of up to 26% on steel fasteners imported from the European Union, affecting about EUR 140 million (US$240 million) worth of fasteners. ©2010 GlobalFastenerNews.com
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