U.S. Initiated Much More Anti-dumping Investigations than Before

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA) announced on April 24 that the U.S. government initiated 28 anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations targeting South Korean companies in January to April this year. For reference, the number was 53 in the entire year of 2016. The number had been 16 in 2012 but rose to 57 in 2013, 37 in 2014 and 64 in 2015.

“What matters more than the increase in the number of such investigations is the fact that the U.S. government is strengthening its procedural law regarding anti-dumping and countervailing duties and imposing punitive anti-dumping and countervailing duties,” the KITA explained, adding, “For example, the U.S. Department of Commerce is calculating high dumping margins by using the Adverse Facts Available provided by complainants in the United States, claiming that South Korean companies exporting their products to the country did not fully cooperate with the investigations.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce has initiated 247 such investigations since the beginning of 2015 and the Adverse Facts Available have been applied to approximately one-fourth of them.

In addition, it has adjusted dumping margins upward by applying a discretionary calculation method to the Particular Market Situation part of production cost data it is provided with by exporting companies for dumping margin calculation.