Avoidance of AFA Application
According to industry sources on March 12, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the U.S. Department of Commerce on March 8 to re-calculate its countervailing duty on POSCO. POSCO filed a suit against the U.S. government back in 2016 with regard to the 59.72% countervailing duty imposed on its cold-rolled steel sheets.
In its preliminary determination in December 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce determined that the import of POSCO’s products at dumping prices was negligible, ending its anti-dumping investigation. However, the department overturned its decision later, claiming that POSCO did not submit some required data, that is, applying Adverse Facts Available (AFA).
POSCO said in response that submission of the data was not mandatory because the use of raw materials supplied by subsidiaries was not significant in the production process and that it submitted the data later during the investigation. In short, the court acknowledged POSCO’s claims in part.
Two months ago, the court made a similar ruling against AFA application with regard to Hyundai Steel’s corrosion-resistant flat-rolled steel products. South Korean steel companies are expecting that the U.S. government’s import duties on their products will be lowered based on the re-calculation to comply with the court order.