The International Trade Commission (ITC) earlier this month dealt a devastating blow to US wire producers in its final injury vote in the antidumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) cases against imports of carbon wire rod. Despite an aggressive effort ? both in terms of testimony and public relations (see box on page 2) - the Commissioners voted in the affirmative for all countries except Germany whose imports were found to be negligible. For six of the countries (Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Mexico, Moldova and Ukraine), the vote was 5-0; for Trinidad and Tobago it was 4-1 (Chairman Okun voted in the negative). The seven countries and the duty margins imposed (effective April 10, 2002) are listed in the table above. On one positive note, Commissioner Bragg was the only one voting affirmatively for "critical circumstances," therefore there will be NO retroactive duties prior to the announcement of the preliminary margins on April 10, 2002. As AWPA has done in the past, several member company representatives were in Washington to testify before the Commission in August. Voicing the points made in previous cases, these witnesses testified that price is not the only criteria in selecting their rod suppliers. More importantly, quality and reliability are what determines this decision. Additionally, they stressed that the domestic rod industry cannot meet demand. The rod mills blamed imports for the recent closure of four domestic rod mills. Most of the questions Commissioners asked of the AWPA witnesses concerned the economy and future demand for rod. Most testified that they are projecting continued weak demand for the rest of the year, with a slight recovery in 2003. A lot of the weak demand this year is due to the economic slump and the terrorist attacks. A small positive development occurred during the petitioners' testimony when Counsel informed the ITC that they would not be seeking an extension of the current Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) program resulting from the 201 investigation on carbon wire rod in 2000. These new duties overlap the tariff rate quotas which do not expire until March 2003.
AWPA would like to thank the following individuals who testified on behalf of the domestic wire industry: Pete Cronin, Industrial Wire Products Corporation Joe Downes, Leggett & Platt Wire Group Bob Moffitt, Davis Wire Corporation Walt Robertson, Johnstown Wire Technologies John Roby, CHC Industries H Woltz, Insteel Industries
 American Wire Producers Association |
