Local carbon steel pipe makers on Friday said they welcome a WTO preliminary ruling in favor of Taiwan in a dumping dispute with Canada, as it is likely to lead to export opportunities.
“Canada’s unreasonable anti-dumping measures absolutely affected our shipments to Canadian customers in recent years,” Yieh Phui Enterprise Co Ltd (燁輝) vice president Chen Yung-hsien (陳永賢) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The company is considering expanding in Canada next year, as Taiwanese steelmakers could sustain global price competitiveness if Taiwan wins the trade dispute and Canada must amend its laws, Chen said.
Carbon steel welded pipes make up about 5 percent of Yieh Phui’s revenues. The company distributes most of its products to domestic clients after Canada imposed anti-dumping tariffs on Taiwanese exporters in 2012, Chen said.
Last year, local steelmakers sold 2,818 tonnes of carbon steel welded pipes to Canada, according to data compiled by the Taiwan Steel and Iron Industries Association (台灣區鋼鐵公會).
The figure represents an 85.5 percent drop from 19,475 tonnes in 2011.
Taiwan took the dispute to the WTO in January last year, asking for a panel review of the case, after the two nations failed to come to any substantive agreement through bilateral trade consultation meetings.
After more than one year of review, the WTO panel found “both Canada’s anti-dumping measures, as well as its domestic anti-dumping legislation, violate WTO rules,” the Office of Trade Negotiations of the Executive Yuan said in a statement on Friday.
The WTO panel condemned Canada for failing to terminate its investigation into exporters having a de minimis dumping margin, which represents a margin of less than 2 percent of export prices, the office said.
A price range of less than 2 percent falls within the range of fair pricing for exporters, so Canada should not have slapped anti-dumping duties on Taiwan’s carbon steel welded pipe exporters, the office said.
The WTO panel found that several provisions of Canada’s underlying legislation are inconsistent with the Anti-Dumping Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994, which means Canada will have to amend its laws to comply with the panel’s ruling.
Due to the tariffs, Taiwanese exporters lost about US$20 million in revenue a year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said.
Chung Hung Steel Corp (中鴻鋼鐵) vice president Li I-hsiang (李逸湘) said the tariffs deterred the company from selling its steel products there.
“Carbon steel welded pipes are not our major products, but the anti-dumping tariff shows the [Canadian] government’s attitude toward steel trade,” Li said.
The two nations have 60 days to decide whether to appeal any of the panel’s findings and the final decision is likely to be made in the middle of next year, the office said.
HANDOVER POLICY: Approving the probe means that the new US administration of Donald Trump is likely to have the option to impose trade restrictions on China US President Joe Biden’s administration is set to initiate a trade investigation into Chinese semiconductors in the coming days as part of a push to reduce reliance on a technology that US officials believe poses national security risks. The probe could result in tariffs or other measures to restrict imports on older-model semiconductors and the products containing them, including medical devices, vehicles, smartphones and weaponry, people familiar with the matter said. The investigation examining so-called foundational chips could take months to conclude, meaning that any reaction to the findings would be left to the discretion of US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming team. Biden
INVESTMENT: Jun Seki, chief strategy officer for Hon Hai’s EV arm, and his team are currently in talks in France with Renault, Nissan’s 36 percent shareholder Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), the iPhone maker known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally, is in talks with Nissan Motor Co’s biggest shareholder Renault SA about its willingness to sell its shares in the Japanese automaker, the Central News Agency (CNA) said, citing people it did not identify. Nissan and fellow Japanese automaker, Honda Motor Co, are exploring a merger that would create a rival to Toyota Motor Corp in Japan and better position the combined company to face competitive challenges around the world, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. However, one potential spanner in the works is
In a patch of South America rich in lithium, used to make batteries for electric cars and other tech, Bolivia is lagging its neighbors in the race to mine the key metal. An area called the “lithium triangle” which spills over the borders of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina is home to 60 percent of the world’s lithium reserves, according to the US Geological Survey. Bolivia claims to have Earth’s largest deposit of the metal, used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and other devices besides e-vehicles. However, Bolivia has undertaken only four pilot projects and is running just one
HON HAI LURKS: The ‘Nikkei’ reported that Foxconn’s interest in Nissan accelerated the Honda-merger effort out of fears it might be taken over by the Taiwanese firm Nissan Motor Co has become the latest buyout target in Japan as it explores a merger with Honda Motor Co and faces an overture from Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) internationally. Shares in Nissan yesterday jumped 24 percent, the most on record, to hit the daily limit, after the two Japanese automakers acknowledged that talks are ongoing to better position themselves for competitive challenges during a time of upheaval in the global auto industry. Foxconn — a Taipei-based manufacturer of iPhones, which has been investing heavily in factories to build electric vehicles — has also
RSS