Trade War: As New Tariffs on China Kick In, US Imposes Duty on Indian Metal Pipes

A new round of US tariffs on Chinese imports worth $16 billion kicked in on Thursday, despite the ongoing trade talks between the two largest economies. Meanwhile, the US has announced hefty preliminary anti-dumping duties on metal pipes imported from India, China and four other countries on Wednesday, in an aggressive tactic by the Trump administration to protect the American industry and lower the trade deficit.

Antidumping complaints were filed by six American pipe manufacturers with the Commerce Department in January. The US Department of Commerce said that from its preliminary determinations in anti-dumping duty investigations of imports of the pipes, it found that six countries were selling the large diameter-welded pipe (used to transport oil, gas and other fluids) far below the fair price and that dumping harms the US industry.

India has been imposed with an anti-dumping duty of 50.55 percent. Last year, US imports of the pipe from India totaled $294.7 million. On the other hand, anti-dumping duties were also imposed on China (132.63 percent), Greece (22.51 percent), Canada (24.38 percent), South Korea (14.97 to 22.21 percent) and Turkey (3.45 to 5.29 percent).

The Commerce Department said it will make a final ruling in November on whether the pipe from India and China is dumped into the US market. If the independent International Trade Commission finds that US industry was not harmed by the imports, the duties will be refunded. For the Canada, Greece, Korea, and Turkey investigations, the final ruling will be made by January 2019. Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells an imported product at an artificially low price.

Meanwhile, the US will start collecting an additional 25 percent duties on 279 Chinese import product including semiconductors, chemicals, plastics, motorbikes and electric scooters from 12.01 am EDT on Thursday.