WASHINGTON -- The United States will levy antidumping duties on imports of South Korean carbon and alloy steel wire rod due to their harmful effect on the domestic industry, a US trade panel said Tuesday.
The US International Trade Commission said it had determined that a domestic industry was being "materially injured" by imports of carbon and certain alloy steel wire rod from South Korea, Italy, Spain, Turkey and Britain.
The Commerce Department determined in March that the five countries were dumping the goods in the US market.
"As a result of the USITC's affirmative determinations, (the US Department of) Commerce will issue antidumping duty orders on imports of this product from Italy, Korea, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom," the commission said in a news release.
(Yonhap)
In South Korea's case, steel manufacturers such as POSCO will face a duty of 41.1 percent.
Wire rod is an intermediate steel product used primarily for subsequent drawing and finishing for wire drawers.
The decision comes a day after the US formally exempted South Korea from a 25 percent tariff on steel imports. South Korea will instead face an annual quota equivalent to about 70 percent of its recent export volume.
In response to the latest anti-dumping duties, South Korea's trade ministry said it will ask the US government to take "objective and fair" measures on Korean products through bilateral and multilateral channels. POSCO will raise counterarguments when Washington conducts annual reviews on its duties, the ministry said.
South Korea exported $17 million worth of carbon and alloy steel wire rod to the US in 2017, accounting for a mere 0.5 percent of total wire rod imports to the US, according to the trade ministry. (Yonhap)